Ruby Sparks (2012)

[PEx_Movies]

Opens SEPT 19

Paul Dano stars in RUBY SPARKS as a novelist who finds romance in the most bizarre way. Struggling with writer's block, disappointed and unfulfilled, his close relationships are with his dog and his brother. Sitting at his old typewriter he creates the perfect girl and discovers to his astonishment that his character, Ruby (Zoe Kazan) has uncannily arrived in his kitchen where she is cooking eggs.

From Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, the acclaimed directors of LITTLE MISS SUNSHINE.


20th Century Fox Philippines

[PEx_Movies]

REAL-LIFE SWEETHEARTS DANO AND KAZAN TACKLE SURREAL LOVE IN “RUBY SPARKS”

“Ruby Sparks” is the story of a novelist’s vision who inexplicably comes to life, only to prove far more complicated than even he could have imagined. With a light touch and a dash of magical realism, the first screenplay from actress and playwright Zoe Kazan attracted the attention of Jonathan Dayton & Valerie Faris, the married team who directed the run-away hit “Little Miss Sunshine.” The film takes an unpredictable route into fantasy, identity and the ways we invent love – and how love can re-invent us.

Paul Dano plays Calvin, a celebrated author in his younger years who hasn’t had a follow up novel years after his first breakthrough novel. Struggling with writer’s block, disappointed and unfulfilled, his close relationships are with his dog and his brother. Calvin who is cut off and isolated is constantly being urged by his married brother Harry (Chirs Messina) to get out, live, date and write. Finally finding in his imagination a muse for his novel and with his old typewriter, he creates the perfect girl he named Ruby. Barely done with his first chapter, to his astonishment that his character, Ruby (Zoe Kazan) has magically sprung to life and arrived in his kitchen where she is cooking eggs.

Life changed as Calvin believes that he willed the perfect woman into his life by the sheer power of his imagination. Ruby leaps off the page and into the kitchen of his house, filling it with her warm and joyful personality. Is he hallucinating? Is this a fantasy? Or is the lovely Ruby Sparks a flesh and blood girl: the girl he has been waiting for? Whether real or imaginary the delightful Ruby turns into a muse who helps Calvin rekindle his passion for writing and his passion for life.

Joining the incredibly talented couple Dano (“Little Miss Sunshine,”“There Will Be Blood”) and Kazan (“Revolutionary Road,” “It’s Complicated”) in the movie are Annette Bening who plays Calvin’s free-spirited hippy mother and Antonio Banderas plays her artistic and flamboyant lover.

Find out what will happen to “Ruby Sparks” when it opens September 19 in select theaters from 20th Century Fox (Fox Searchlight Pictures) to be distributed by Warner Bros.

Check out 20th Century Fox’s YouTube http://www.youtube.com/20thcenturyfoxph
for the trailer.

[PEx_Movies]

[forg]

Nice that we are getting this movie here

[dannececoholic]

Looking forward to be wow-ed again after the director duo's film debut, "Little Miss Sunshine"

[PEx_Movies]

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE PROMO

Paul Dano stars in RUBY SPARKS as a novelist who finds romance in the most bizarre way.

Struggling with writer’s block, disappointed and unfulfilled, his close relationships are with his dog and his brother. Sitting at his old typewriter he creates the perfect girl and discovers to his astonishment that his character, Ruby (Zoe Kazan) has uncannily arrived in his kitchen where she is cooking eggs.

Answer the movie question correctly and be one of the five (5) winners who will win two (2) advance screening tickets to the movie RUBY SPARKS on September 17, Monday, at Glorietta 4 Cinema 2.



CLICK THE PROMO PAGE HERE AND JOIN NOW:
THE HUNTING PARTY 'WIN ADVANCE SCREENING TICKETS' PROMO


View the Movie Trailer here:
Ruby Sparks Movie Trailer
Read the Movie Review here:
Ruby Sparks Movie Review
Discuss the movie here:
Ruby Sparks Movie Thread


In Cinemas SEPTEMBER 19.
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[PEx_Movies]

CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE PROMO

• Promo Title: Ruby Sparks 'Win Advanced Screening Tickets' Movie Promo
• Promo Duration: Sept 11 - Sept 16, 2012

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1. Be one of the five (5) winners who will win two (2) advance screening tickets to the movie RUBY SPARKS on September 17, Monday, at Glorietta 4 Cinema 2.
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[forg]

Opens on Wednesday!

[Lola_Rose]

Is there really such a thing as a perfect relationship? Does your dream girl/guy actually exists? The quirky romantic-comedy-fantasy Ruby Sparks tackles the twisted and flawed idea of wanting that "perfect" partner.

Calvin (Paul Dano) is a genius celebrity novelist suffering from a terrible writer's block, unable to come up with a follow-up to his masterpiece— the greatest contemporary American novel of all time—that he has written ten years ago at the age of 19. Like most geniuses, Calvin is lonely and a bit messed up. And like most celebrities, he questions people's affections for him ("They like me for my work, and not me.") And like everybody else, he just wants to be loved. Basically, Calvin lives a depressing life, with only his brother (Chris Messina) as his friend (not even a "valid friend," according to his psychotherapist), and his dog Scotty as his sole companion in his depressingly neat, monochromatic, and sterile apartment (I myself would suffer from writer's block and insanity if I were living in that place).

Calvin's writer's paralysis finally ends when he starts dreaming about a ruby haired woman, becomes inspired, and begins writing a novel about her, his ideal girl. He names her Ruby Sparks. And he falls in love with her, his creation. One morning, Calvin is astounded to wake up to find Ruby Sparks in his kitchen, fully realized and very much real. With the perfect girl in his arms, Calvin's loneliness also ends. Or does it really?


Paul Dano now typecast as a writer? He also starred as a writer in Being Flynn (2012) with De Niro.

Love?

Screenplay written by 29-year-old Zoe Kazan, who also plays the titular Ruby Sparks, and from the directors of Little Miss Sunshine (husband-and-wife Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris), the movie is not your usual romantic comedy. The movie has its light comedic moments but the entire film has dark and unsettling undertones in it. In the drab and dreary, melancholic canvas of the film, the Ruby Sparks character, in her vibrantly colored costumes and quirky face, is the shiny object, the only sight of color and "life," even though she's not even "real." This does not make you happy for Calvin, but only leaves you with a sense of dread and a general sense of unpleasantness and creepiness. Both Dano and Kazan (real-life couple) deliver effective performances that draws you right into their world, sucking you along in their roller-coaster of emotions. The movie begins with light comedy, but then gradually escalates into a disturbing climax, then finishes with an audience-pleasing ending—albeit still with a twist of creepiness.


Zoe Kazan wrote the screenplay, then plays the Ruby Sparks character.


What does "perfect relationship" mean to you?


Ruby Sparks, with a cameo from Annette Bening and Antonio Banderas, is both fantasy and real, light and heavy, depressing and sporadically funny. It's essentially an intriguing and thought-provoking fantasy film that reveals the honest truth about self-centeredness, selfishness, relationship control, debilitating loneliness, and an unhealthy perception of love and relationships. It could be an eye-opener for some, or plain entertaining for some, or could be too eccentric and freaky for the taste of some.


7 out of 10 stars
In Philippine Cinemas September 19, 2012



Official PEx Movie Reviews

[lans2gt]

Just watched it kanina. I love the film. A good romantic comedy flick.

Mukhang tatamaman mga selfish na tao pag pinanood etong movie hahaha

[butler]

hahaha, gusto ko 'yung statement mo lans2gt

agaw-eksena dito 'yung kapatid ni Calvin. si Chris Messina. haha. benta yung mga hirit niya sa akin

[forg]

I watched it a while ago and I really liked it. This got the complications of relationships right and how we romanticize "our dream girl/boy". The ending was a little off to me though. Anyway, the scene when Calvin revealed to Ruby the truth was so jarring lalo na nung paulit na ulit na "your're a genius" it freaked me out a little

[Qubetha]

maganda din sya akala ko nga pangit kaya't nagaalangan ako last night pero nung nag simula na lalo na yung mga naunang scene sa pelikula kung saan nagkakilala sila sa ilalim ng puno ok na kahit paano sulit yung ibinayad ko!

[forg]

I'm really surprised it got a wide release here kasi sa US nga limited lang ito but I'm very glad the distributors took a chance on this.

[OCEANNE]

I loved it. My kind of sunday-feel-good-movie, at least for me....

[shooter_mcgavin]

I loved it. My kind of sunday-feel-good-movie, at least for me....

If that was feel good you have some twisted fantasies my friend. But don't worry I do too

Anyways my unedited rough draft of a review

Perhaps, in a selfish and egotistical way all, of our fantasies is to be able to control the world around us to fit our own desires and satisfactions. Like Rosanne Barr in the 80/90's sitcom Rosanne where the series finale provided a twist where it was revealed that the actual show was based on the title character's writing altering her life story to cope with her grief, it's through writing where a person can escape from the reality he or she does not deem fit and thus creating their own. Ruby Sparks is that character.

Ruby (Zoe Kazan) is the love interest in the novel that Calvin (Paul Dano) is writing as he places his ideal relationship and girl as his real life is much less satisfying and somewhat isolated. Mysteriously though, Ruby come to life inheriting all the characteristics based on Calvin's writing. Unlike movies like A Beautiful Mind, everyone else can see her as well thus presenting the perfect romance that Calvin has longed for, or so he thinks.

Nothing stays the same forever and the perfect love both Ruby and Calvin share soon crumbles as some relationships end up. Calvin, playing puppet master, uses his power to rewrite Ruby's personality on his own will at the expense of hers.

The movie takes a complete 180 degrees at one point where the film's tone drastically changes to a light hearted and sweet natured comedy to a dark and disturbing. Like the tone Calvin start's off as a likable underdog but slowly becomes the antagonist as movies goes on to the point when his action towards Ruby becomes a despicable display of playing god. The sight of man turning his "true love" into a puppet is unsettling and changes our perception of our protagonist into that of a monster somewhat building his own Bride of Frankenstein.

The movie works because Zoe Kazan and Paul Dano know how to keep things cheerful and joyful when appropriate but can turn things around when things become sour. It's almost the perfect romance the audience embraces soon magnifies to a painful stab at our emotions not just because of how bad the relationship gets but because of Calvin's actions.

The concept of the movie absurd and its drastic tonal shift might be a surprise, and even, unsettling and uncomfortable to many but it does so to its point. Often times we have preconceived expectations on what the perfect world is and sometimes, especially in the case of this film, the perfect relationship or partner but we don't have complete control over everything. For better or worse that's how people and world around you works and finding ways to build your own utopia as you see fit will just lead to isolation and loneliness, just ask Charles Foster Kane. Though, it's strange, as overreaching and pretentious it might sound, Calvin descent holds many similarities to the title character of that cinematic classic.

Ruby Sparks is an inventive piece of work. It might not be the as original as it tries to be, since it does bear similarities with other movies and the movie does take a shortcut at the end, but the movie an enjoyable one that still takes some unique steps in storytelling and is also apiece about freewill and the acceptance of people around you.

B/B+