One of the joys of University life is that, rather like school, every so often a bug goes around and because everyone is in pretty close contact with each other, you will probably end up at least knowing someone who has had it. In this case, that person would be me. So rather than using my ill time productively by catching up with reading or attempting to begin a report write up, I have decided to spend my time watching a butt load of films and downloading 90's music to make me feel happy again.
'Ruby Sparks' is the first of the many films I will probably end up watching (unless some miracle happens and I am magically cured within a few hours), and I would say it was a pretty good way to start. Calvin (Paul Dano) is a young novelist who had a huge success when he was younger but now is well and truly struggling with writers block. After talking to his therapist (Elliott Gould), Calvin has a dream involving his perfect woman (Zoe Kazan). He uses this vision as inspiration to start writing again, but soon discovers that the woman of his imagination has not only come to life but that his writing can, in a sense, control her and who she is.
As soon as I heard that this film was made by the same people who made 'Little Miss Sunshine' I had high hopes for it. Let's face it, 'Little Miss Sunshine' is a pretty great film. With Paul Dano taking the lead role, this really is a good film (I realise I say that quite a lot. Maybe I'm just easily pleased). It is charming with the same sort of quirky humour as the director's previous film and an equally brilliant cast. Paul Dano is great, walking the line very well between arrogant child genius and insecure lonely author. He is one of those actors who, in my opinion, is very understated and overlooked in terms of how talented he actually is. Zoe Kazan also gives a great performance as Ruby Sparks (as well as being the writer of the film), particularly in the scenes later on in the film where Calvin is changing Ruby through his writing.
One of the few drawbacks of the film is that it is beyond predictable. Author creates character who later comes to life and things are all happy clappy in the beginning but they soon start to go wrong. I'm guessing you can also probably figure out where it goes from there as well. However, whilst with some films predictability would make watching it seem a bit pointless, this films quirky nature keeps it original without being so quirky that it just plain weird.
Therefore, go and see it. It's especially good if you're not feeling too good. It will cheer you up a bit. Now excuse whilst I return to my Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys.
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