You’ll have to be in the right frame of mind to enjoy and appreciate Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris’ Ruby Sparks, a twee romantic fantasy that’s a bit low wattage on the romance side and a bit heavy on the preciousness as a writer conjures up his ideal woman and then has trouble with his own creation. Light on humor but heavy in its psychological explorations of the tendency of men to manipulate and control their ladies, Ruby Sparks is more intellectually astute than it is purely entertaining.
Ruby Sparks (Blu-ray)
Directed by Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Studio: 20th Century Fox
Year: 2012
Aspect Ratio: 1:85:1 1080p AVC codec
Running Time: 104 minutes
Rating: R
Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 English; Dolby Digital 5.1 Spanish, French
Subtitles: SDH, Spanish
Region: A
MSRP: $ 39.99
Release Date: October 30, 2012
Review Date: November 1, 2012
The Film
3.5/5
Genius-level writer Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) has had trouble of late sustaining both his level of creativity after early success as a novelist as a teenager and any meaningful relationship with a woman. His psychiatrist Dr. Rosenthal (Elliott Gould) suggests writing something angry and rough as therapy, and Calvin begins writing frenetically about a girl named Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan) he keeps meeting in his dreams. It comes as a great surprise for him to one day find Ruby alive and well and living in his home. Afraid he’s losing his mind, he introduces her to his older brother Harry (Chris Messina) who’s equally baffled by the sudden appearance of this girl who’s convinced she’s the girl of Calvin’s dreams. Calvin also realizes that he controls every aspect of Ruby by simply writing about her, but he puts the writing aside as the two begin to explore their relationship. Soon, though, Calvin recognizes that without his own manipulation of Ruby through his typewriter, the girl will begin drifting away from him exploring her own interests and friendships thus making him feel guilty and miserable that he can only keep her close by continuing to write her as a fiercely loyal girl friend.
Zoe Kazan who stars as Ruby also wrote the script to this piece focusing early on Ruby’s quirky, fun-loving nature but later adding layers of complexity to the character as she begins interacting with others and longing for a life where a man is only one component of her life rather than as her sole purpose for existing. Though her script doesn’t paint the men in the movie very positively, it certainly offers her a multi-hued character whose emotions can shift with the stroke of a typewriter key and whose life demands more than simply being an appendage of a successful man. It’s not exactly a groundbreaking thesis for a film nor is the Pygmalion-Galatea fantasy element all that original, but at least in the movie’s early going, the sights of an intelligent nebbish being knocked off his feet by the attentions of a funny, wacky free spirit provide some sparkle. The direction of the Jonathan Dayton-Valerie Faris team (who helmed Little Miss Sunshine) is silky smooth but never flamboyant until it needs to be as in the film’s centerpiece: a sojourn to Big Sur where Calvin’s free wheeling mother Gertrude (Annette Bening) and her lover, an overage hippie (Antonio Bandaras), live in a kind of blissful floral paradise and who give Ruby her first taste of a more exotic and exciting life set in stark contrast to Calvin’s more controlling and solitary existence he wants for the two of them.
Zoe Kazan has the toughest role as Ruby becomes a living marionette whose strings are continually being tugged by Paul Dano’s calculating, manipulative Calvin. Dano makes for a disconcerting protagonist, sometimes rather pathetic and needy and at other times almost sadistic in his desire for complete mastery of his creation (the film’s final scenes between the two lovers are very uncomfortable and off-putting and not assuaged by the too-neat trick ending). Chris Messina plays one of those movie brothers who would only exist in cinema (the fact that Dano and Messina look nothing alike doesn’t help), and Steve Coogan as Calvin’s champion (who also seems to have a bit of resentment about Calvin's success) is equally unlikable. Annette Bening has lots of effervescence as Calvin’s mother, and Antonio Bandaras matches her twinkle for twinkle in the charisma department. Elliot Gould is also very effective as Calvin’s therapist enhancing a couple of psychiatric sessions.
Video Quality
4.5/5
The film’s theatrical 1.85:1 aspect ratio is faithfully reproduced in this 1080p transfer using the AVC codec. Shot digitally, the film’s clarity and sharp detail are beautifully presented, and colors are smooth and solid throughout. Flesh tones are also natural and appealing, and contrast maintains a consistency that gives the low budget film a very professional sheen. Black levels aren’t the deepest, but otherwise the image quality is very impressive. The film has been divided into 24 chapters.
Audio Quality
3.5/5
The DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 sound mix doesn’t do much with the rear surround channels apart from Nick Urata’s background music score and some jazz tunes which get some placement in the fronts and that spill a bit into the rears. There is little ambience found anywhere but in the front channels of the mix, and the LFE channel gets the night off with this mix. Dialogue has been well recorded and has been placed in the center channel.
Special Features
3/5
There are five brief EPK featurettes which cover the basics of the production. All are presented in 1080p.
“The Story” features cast members Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, and Chris Messina telling the plot of the film in this 4 ¼-minute vignette.
“The Cast” has directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris and producers Ron Yerxa and Albert Berger praising the cast, and various cast members talking about the people they play in the movie. This runs 3 ¾ minutes.
“Real-Life Couples” informs the audience that the two directors and the two stars are both couples in real life, each enjoying sharing the film with his or her partner in this 3-minute featurette.
“Be Careful What You Wish For” is a 3 ¾-minute featurette with the two directors describing the themes in Zoe Kazan’s script.
“Los Angeles: The Other Character” is a 3 ¼-minute tribute to the three primary L.A. locations used in the movie and praised by the directors, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, and production designer Judy Becker.
The film’s theatrical trailer runs 2 ¼ minutes.
The disc contains promo trailers for The Sessions and Lola Versus.
In Conclusion
3.5/5 (not an average)
An interesting if not entirely original glimpse into the male-female dynamic in today’s world, Ruby Sparks makes its points with surety if not always entertainingly. The Blu-ray features an excellent video transfer and some superficial bonus material that doesn’t expand much on what the film has to say.
Matt Hough
Charlotte, NC
