[dropcap style="font-size: 60px; color: #9b9b9b;"] R [/dropcap] uby Sparks is a delightful film directed by Dayton and Faris, who brought us Little Miss Sunshine. This film was written by Ruby herself…..Zoe Kazan. This is particularly amazing because as I watched this surreal, but charming movie, I thought how hard it must be to find an actress who could play Ruby with her guileless innocence and wonder. There are lots of characteristics that lend themselves self-awareness, but I would never have thought someone would see themselves as a clueless neophyte conjured up by the literary imagination of a modern version of J.D. Salinger.
Paul Dano, one of the homeliest actors since Tobey Maguire, is the once famous author prodigy who can’t get a life beyond his Hollywood Hills house and effeminate dog. So his writers’ block turns to an exercise suggested by shrink Elliot Gould….to write the girl of his recurring dreams. That becomes Ruby, without hocus pocus or fanfare, and just appears. Both Dano and his brother Chris Messina have some fun thinking through what they could write into Ruby’s “program”, but mostly, the humor comes in the challenge he has in getting Ruby stabilized. Like all magic, it turns out it’s not as easy as it looks. I guess the message is that love is never easy, even when you’re making it all up yourself.
Another fun bit is watching Annette Bening play Dano’s Big Sur Earth Mother. I can buy that. But Antonio Banderas as Mort, the chainsaw wielding chair sculptor? I can’t suspend disbelief that far, but it was a fun scene.
I find myself wondering how people can live such good lifestyles with such little work. Who invests their money and pays their bills. I’m clearly doing something wrong.