Review of Ruby Sparks (2012) by Panta O — 04 Dec 2012

I didn't expect to like this romantic comedy-drama as much as I did, but the directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris did the best they could with the screenplay written by Zoe Kazan. The movie is refreshingly weird and staring Paul Dano as a struggling novelist whose fictional character, Ruby Sparks, played by Kazan, comes to life, was the right choice.

Actually presenting this slanted version of our own reality, Kazan always imagined the lead character Calvin with her then boyfriend Paul Dano in mind. Kazan was successful in getting the attention of Albert Berger and Ron Yerxa, the producers of Little Miss Sunshine, who sent it to directing couple Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who took it on as the first project since Little Miss Sunshine in 2006. Of course, it was hard not to succeed with such a team having the right project.

Not too artsy, this is very well written, and wonderfully acted romantic comedy that takes us up and glides us slowly down to Earth with very smooth safe landing.