Review: Ruby Sparks is magical but mostly human

  Warning: The following spoilers are not fiction. 

Ruby Sparks does cinematic magic the way it's done best - it puts us in the same confusion-filled boat as our lead character, once famous but now struggling writer Calvin Weir-Field. He has no idea how the ginger-haired and quite fanciable lady-character he's been writing about has suddenly become real, walking around in his flat, making eggs and claiming to be his girlfriend - and neither do we! He's fallen desperately in love with her while dreaming her up and writing her down, but can he love her now she's turned up in his reality? The answer is yes. At least, for a while anyway. Even as the tale begins to take on a sinister turn of events it always remembers that something magical on screen tends to have more of a hold on its audience when true, believable emotions get tied up in the chaos.

The only problem with Ruby Sparks is that it never goes as far as to completely blow your mind, or totally rip your heart to shreds. It never pushes itself as far as it can go - it edges it's way in that direction, but doesn't have the balls to go through with it. It's not quite Eternal Sunshine but it's definitely on the same page. (Ha! Page!)

Calvin wished he hadn't written a story about the bogeyman.

From the off Calvin is an endearing character. He's been successful and has a lot of dosh but he's also got a shedload of psychological problems to overcome, which means he's been having difficulty writing a new book. Then, he has a dream about a ginger-haired and quite fanciable lady-character, who he immediately writes about upon waking. He writes her inside out, gives her a backstory, habits, memories and all the rest of it. So, when Calvin and his psychological problems wake up one morning to find she's suddenly burst into existence, he worries that he's finally lost it. This leads to some amusing comic moments until he finally begins to accept that, however it may have happened, she's here and that's the way it is. He has trouble convincing his macho brother that his fictional girlfriend now exists, who happens to steal the show whenever he's on screen. He's just as baffled by it all as we are. And then we begin to wonder, where's this going to go? There wouldn't be a movie if there weren't any problems...

Slowly but surely we come to realise the obvious - Calvin has written himself the 'perfect girlfriend', but there's no such thing as a perfect girl, or guy, or anyone. To love somebody you must love them and their imperfections because humans, by default, have a million and one imperfections. Humans are a mess, so when imaginary Ruby is no longer a figment of someone's imagination and becomes real, she becomes human - which means she can live, make mistakes and become imperfect.

"Could you write me a better breakfast!"

As Ruby becomes more and more human, therefore less and less what Calvin wants, Calvin becomes more and more sinister and controlling, almost god like. The further he writes himself into a corner, the sadder we feel for him because, afterall, we found him endearing all along and here he is psychologically tormenting himself and a puzzled suddenly-french-speaking Ruby. All of these thoughts and feelings nearly spiral out of control, but not quite, in the 'big finale' which is filled with 'big decisions' and 'big emotions'. Again, the film doesn't push itself as far as it perhaps could and some of it already feels like it's been done by other movies before, but what's here is human. It should be a perfect film in any audience's eyes, even with it's many little imperfections. It leaves a mark, too. It makes you think about how you see others and how they may see you. Not too many movies leave marks these days, and perhaps this one does because it has the bravery to hold itself back a little and keep a lid on things, rather than push itself too far. Who knows, maybe it'd have all gotten too 'unbelievable' otherwise...

★★★★☆

 Roo