Taglines: She’s out of his mind.
Calvin Weir-Fields is a young novelist who is struggling to recreate the early success of his first novel and unable to commit to any of his ideas. With his introverted personality and idealistic view of what it means to be in love, Calvin also struggles in finding relationships, feeling most women are only interested in an idolized and preconceived notion of who they believe him to be.
His therapist, Dr. Rosenthal, gives him a writing assignment: to write a page about someone who likes his rather uninspiring dog, Scotty. Calvin has a dream in which he meets a strange young woman, who draws a picture of Scotty and says she likes him. Calvin wakes up and is inspired to write about her. In therapy he admits he is falling in love with the character he is writing and tells the therapist all about Ruby Sparks.
Calvin’s brother Harry and sister-in-law Susie come to visit and Susie finds articles of women’s clothing around the house. That night while writing before falling asleep at his typewriter, Calvin writes a passage with Ruby admitting that he is not the kind of guy she usually goes for and yet she is falling in love with him.
The next day, Calvin is stunned to find Ruby in his kitchen, an actual living person. Thinking he is going crazy, he calls Harry, who does not believe him and advises him to meet with someone to take his mind off things. Ruby is confused by his behavior and insists on coming along, but he leaves her to shop while he meets Mabel, a young fan of his book who had given him her number. Ruby finds them and believes he is cheating on her. In the ensuing confrontation, Calvin discovers that others can actually see Ruby, proving that she is real and not a figment of his imagination. Calvin explains that he feels overwhelmed, and they break down in love.
Calvin introduces Ruby to Harry, who is incredulous at first and suggests alternate explanations. However, Calvin soon proves that his writing directly affects Ruby. Explaining how he loves her, Calvin asks Harry not to tell anyone of Ruby’s origins. Although Harry warns him that women are mysterious creatures and that things may change, Calvin insists that since he wrote her into existence, he knows her and asserts that he will never write about Ruby again.
Months later, Calvin reluctantly takes Ruby to meet his free-spirited mother Gertrude and her boyfriend Mort . While Ruby with her much more outgoing personality enjoys the time with his family, introverted Calvin spends the weekend reading by himself, growing jealous of the time she spends with other people as Ruby’s happy spirit begins to fade at Calvin’s increased gloominess.
After they return to Calvin’s, the relationship is tense. Calvin complains of Ruby’s singing while she cooks and he reads. Depressed, she and Calvin have a serious talk. Ruby explains how lonely she is and suggests they start spending less time together. Calvin is miserable. Fearful of Ruby’s desertion and desperate, he begins to write her story again in which she too is miserable without him.
Ruby returns full-time but becomes incredibly clingy, afraid to leave Calvin’s side for even a second. Tired of this, Calvin writes that Ruby is “filled with effervescent joy,” as a result of which she becomes constantly happy, leaving Calvin morose, him knowing her happiness is artificial.
Ruby Sparks is a 2012 romantic comedy-drama film directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, and written by Zoe Kazan. It stars Paul Dano as an anxious novelist whose fictional character, Ruby Sparks, played by Kazan, comes to life.
Zoe Kazan talked about the importance of Los Angeles as the location for the film, comparing it to a character as much as a setting. She sees Los Angeles as a place where it is easy to feel alone and isolated and that fits in with the isolation of Calvin in the story. Directors Dayton and Faris said it was great to show Los Angeles itself, rather than pretending to be another place. Filming took place largely around the Silver Lake and Los Feliz neighborhoods. Other locations include Grauman’s Egyptian Theatre, and the Hollywood Cemetery. The party hosted by Langdon Tharp is held in a Lloyd Wright-designed house.
Ruby Sparks opened in a limited release in 13 theaters and grossed $140,822, with an average of $10,832 per theater and ranking #28 at the box office. The film’s widest release in the U.S. was 261 theaters, and it ultimately earned $2,540,106 domestically and $6,588,157 internationally for a worldwide total of $9,128,263.
Ruby Sparks (2012)
Directed by: Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris
Starring: Paul Dano, Zoe Kazan, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Steve Coogan, Elliott Gould, Chris Messina, Toni Trucks, Deborah Ann Woll, Elliott Gould, Alia Shawkat, Emma Julia Jacobs
Screenplay by: Zoe Kazan
Production Design by: Judy Becker
Cinematography by: Matthew Libatique
Film Editing by: Pamela Martin
Costume Design by: Nancy Steiner
Set Decoration by: Matthew Flood Ferguson
Art Direction by: Alexander Wei
Music by: Nick Urata
MPAA Rating: R for language including some sexual references, and for some drug use.
Distributed by: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release Date: July 25, 2012
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