Ruby Sparks

Ruby Sparks | B+

The “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,”
a screen archetype currently personified by Zooey Deschanel — but stretching
back through Meg Ryan, Diane Keaton, Audrey Hepburn etc. — gets a clever
tweaking as Zoe Kazan takes on as Ruby Sparks‘ title character. True to
genre tropes, Kazan’s whip-smart interpretation of the fire-haired charmer
embodies all the wishes, dreams, anxieties and sweaty fantasies of her
buttoned-up male protagonist, and through the force of her unbridled joy and
mystic femininity, draws him out of his drab shell. The difference here is that
Ruby is actually a literary conceit turned flesh and blood purely thorough the
imagination of her lover-creator Calvin, a mopey young novelist played by
Kazan’s real-life boyfriend Paul Dano.

Withdrawn Cal is caught in a
prolonged sophomore swoon, unable to muster an answer to the remarkable success
of his debut book of 10 years earlier. His gently understanding therapist (the
always-welcome Elliot Gould) suggests writing about the mystery girl who’s been
bouncing around Cal’s dreams, and in short order, she’s bouncing around his
kitchen, in the flesh, cheerfully whisking eggs.

Ruby is everything Cal expected; a bubbly, unpredictable romantic from Dayton, Ohio, exactly as written. The
fact that everyone else can now see her only mildly eases his frazzled nerves.
Calvin freaks out, but his smarmy brother (Chris Messina) immediately grasps
the upside of this bizarre, fantasy scenario; a fully customizable girlfriend
that can be edited with a whim and a few keystrokes. And of course all would be
wonderful, if only his delightful creation would stick to the script.

This is the kind of
high-concept whimsy trafficked in by Woody Allen, though thankfully free of
Dixieland jazz, monochrome title cards or kvetching about Russian literature.
Instead of gloomy Manhattan we get the sun-soaked L.A. hipster oasis Los Feliz,
and married directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (Little Miss
Sunshine) capture the city’s funky vibrancy, away from the stereotyped
freeways and strip malls. That quirky cool spirit fills every frame of Ruby
Sparks, and infuses it with a humor and a persuasive warmth, even when the
movie starts to feel like an overly precocious Charlie Kauffman knock-off.

If you detect the musty whiff
of sexism in the premise, bear in mind that Kazan wrote the script and, as
co-producer, cannily casts herself in the part, which is by nature an acting
showcase. Every time Cal touches his typewriter, Ruby’s mood shifts, from silly
to clingy to sensual to bitter, with a host of shades in between. While she
rides this emotional roller coaster, Dano works his trademark tones of intense,
melancholic paranoia, although there is an inherent sweetness to him. The
unmistakable intimacy between the couple helps soften the film’s darker,
creepier moments.

The scary implication, that
relationships can be destructive to identity, is tempered by the understanding
that the things we cannot control about our partners are usually the things we
love about them the most.

Opens Friday, Aug. 3, at the
Birmingham 8 (211 S. Old Woodward Avenue, Birmingham;
248-644-3456) and expands to other theaters next week.

Cutline: Real-life couple
Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan play characters, one of whom is imaginary … so
confusing.

This article appears in Aug 1-7, 2012.