“She’s out of his mind.” “Ruby Sparks,” directed by Jonathon Dayton and Valerie Faris, is a refreshing modern tall-tale. Starring Paul Dano as Calvin Weir-Fields, a restless writer with an overactive imagination, and Zoe Kazan as Ruby Sparks, a product of Calvin’s imagination, “Ruby Sparks” is one of the best independent films of the year.
Calvin is a successful, yet discontented, writer who is looking for love (and a better therapist) after a rough break up. The recluse pecks away at his typewriter until he finds the one thing he is missing: love. Calvin fills this void by writing about Ruby: a quirky, complicated, artsy, beautiful girl with bright red hair and magenta-colored tights. In Calvin’s dreams, Ruby comes to life. But he never expected his dreams to turn into a reality.
Ruby appears one day in Calvin’s kitchen – a living, breathing manifestation of Calvin’s imagination. Kazan, who also wrote the screenplay, plays the part on point. Her choices at times seem overly dramatic, but Kazan’s tendency toward exaggerated is fitting because Ruby is essentially a caricature. The more Dano writes about her, the more she is under his control. But when Dano does not write about Ruby, she becomes resentful and, ultimately, human.
Dano plays the introspective, obsessive writer beautifully. The actor is convincingly anxious and simultaneously impressed and frightened by his creation. Kazan and Dano have uncanny chemistry – the two actors have been dating off-screen for several years.
The story moves quickly. In one instance the love between Calvin and Ruby seems undeniably real, and in others the aspects of surrealism reveal themselves and the love crumbles.
This film is both heartbreaking and warming. But the message is clear: there is no “perfect match.” Trying to control one’s partner is impossible simply because we are all human – mood swings and all. Once one accepts his or her powerlessness, as Calvin does, then others can accept them as they are.