Ruby Sparks (2012 Jonathan Dayton, Valerie Faris)

8 September 2013:

Loner writer Paul Dano imagines dream girl Zoe Kazan (granddaughter of Elia, and writer of the film), who suddenly materialises in real life. Chris Messina, Annette Bening & Antonio Banderas are family, Steve Coogan a celebrity author and Elliott Gould the psychoanalyst (it's always nice to see him).

 

How the writer then manipulates his new girlfriend is of course the relationship study that the film's all about, and it becomes quite powerful. The dilemma the first-time scriptwriter leaves herself though is how to resolve this fantasy scenario, which she does in a kind of cliched way.

Nonetheless, an interesting follow up to the same directors' Little Miss Sunshine, and an intriguing tangent on the writing process itself. Satisfyingly dark photography from Matthew Libatique, who often works in the weird world of Darren Aaronofsky.

We watched it on a hotel television on which it was impossible to adjust the aspect ratio and it was centred in the middle of the screen. Accordingly, it was one of the smallest films we'd seen in a long time.

18 August 2015:

Zoe Kazan has written a challenging screenplay which looks at how male writers write female characters, then goes bigger - how men think about and treat women. It's quite serious, and made us both think of Woody Allen (who would have handled it very differently) in its attempt to pull off a complete fantasy (as such the ending is somewhat contrived - there as a crowdpleaser). 

Paul Dano commendably plays it completely straight - his face is often really funny. This is a good actor. With Chris Messina, Annette Bening, Antonio Banderas, Elliott Gould and Steve Coogan.

26 October 2020:

Pamela Martin's the editor again, and she does some lovely stuff in a swimming pool.

Zoe has lately been in The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and The Big Sick.