Ruby Sparks is a hipster film adaptation of the Pygmalion myth

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

Ruby Sparks is an intelligent romantic comedy directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Creators

Zoe Kazan, granddaughter of the eminent writer and cinematographer Elia Kazan, wrote the script for the film version of the modern version of the myth of Galatea and Pygmalion, and the directors of the 2006 hit film Little Miss Sunshine, Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, shot the film. Zoe also played the main role in the comedy, and her lover in real life, the lead actor of a depressed young man who did not part with a volume of Nietzsche in the same “Little Miss Sunshine”, Paul Dano became a shooting partner.

For the director's couple, who previously shot videos for world-famous performers, a melancholy family comedy, highly appreciated by world critics, became their debut in big cinema. The second Ruby Sparks film is very similar to the debut project: both films are soothing genre films with an unobtrusive presence of a share of intellectualism and irony, which do not particularly affect the viewing effect, but make the pictures deliberately “shameless”.

Story. Tie

The comedy "Ruby Sparks" (2012) introduces the viewer to the main character - a shy young writer Calvin Warfields (actor Paul Dano), whoat the age of less than 19 he published one novel, after which he was positioned as the hope of modern American literature. But the hopes of the public did not come true: the hero fell into a deep personal and creative crisis. He only interacted with his dog Scotty, a brutal but goofy brother and psychotherapist.

One day his daily routine is disturbed by a wonderful dream in which Kelvin dreams of a charming red-haired artist Ruby. On the rise of an emotional wave, the writer begins to create a new novel, in which he describes in detail his relationship with the dreaming girl. The hero every day is more and more immersed in an imaginary feeling, and his beloved materializes in an incomprehensible way. Women's gizmos begin to appear in the bachelor's house. Waking up one day, Calvin discovers a fictional beauty (actress Zoe Kazan) in his kitchen.

Intrigue

Next, the protagonist of the comedy "Ruby Sparks", resigned to the impossibility of what is happening, begins to enjoy the inexplicably appeared romantic idyll. However, after a short period of cloudless happiness, it turns out that relationships with an imaginary girl have the same problems as in real life: fatigue, disagreements in tastes and sympathies, scandals and tantrums. But the writer has a trouble-free way to eliminate the problems that have arisen - a typewriter. Kelvin now and then makes adjustments to the image of his beloved, thereby knocking down the settings to a real disaster. For all its eccentricity, the RubySparks follows the course and pacing of the canonical romance film exactly.

Decoupling (no spoilers)

The denouement of "Ruby Sparks" is completely worthy of the beginning of the whole story, although the skeptical viewer may have the impression that everything ended too sweetly and smoothly. One gets the feeling that at the climax, the creators of the picture begin to be cautious, deliberately reducing all the unfortunate possibilities for ending the development of the plot to one episode. But such a choice only enhances the commercial potential of the film, one of the funniest and most romantic comedies since 500 Days of Summer.

Actors

It is definitely worth noting that not only the creators coped with the task perfectly, but the ensemble cast of the picture made an invaluable contribution to the creation of a masterpiece. The main characters are extremely attractive. The story, which is narrated by the leading actors Paul Dano and Zoe Kazan, you believe, you sympathize and empathize with their characters. The ability of the acting duet to create and present to the viewer the correct (life-like, not glossy-ideal) story, such that the viewer is imbued and believed, can only be admired uncontrollably.

Zoe Kazan is an amazing person, her parents are screenwriters. Mother was a co-author of the script for the film, which became exemplary (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), and her father wrote the script for the movie The Wrong Side of Fate, so no one doubted her success as a screenwriter. But the girl surprisedpublic, demonstrating outstanding acting skills in the movie "Ruby Sparks". The actors who worked with her were surprised by her talent for impersonation.

Supporting actors, Steve Coogan as literary agent Kelvin, Annette Bening as the writer's hippie mother, and Antonio Banderas as the sculptor's stepfather on screen, despite more acting experience and a much more impressive filmography, are not overshadowed the leading actors.

The film received positive reviews and is recommended for viewing by many viewers.