Watched: Ruby Sparks
Observations:
- This was surprisingly thought-provoking, but I’m still not sure how.
- Paul Dano’s character appears to be someone who has trouble dealing with ordinary relationships, and it’s interesting how when he’s presented with extraordinary circumstances he still ends up learning the same lessons. The effect of this is that you end up with something that simultaneously feels masturbatory and enlightening, and while all of the individual components of this film are wonderful (Zoe Kazan in particular), I’m undecided as to its success as a whole.
- Maybe part of the problem is that (and here is an admission of guilt) writing a person requires much greater awareness and coherency of thought than just understanding them - good people can have all the right intuitions about others, but end up coming across as contrived or overly-simplistic when they put pen to paper. I know this because I still struggle to write people, and the harder ones are the ones that are further away from who I am - so, yes, women are harder to write for me. So, from a writer’s perspective, this is a little more complicated; Calvin doesn’t just face the problem of navigating a relationship, but also has the added burden of creating someone who translates effortlessly into humanity without complications.
- All that said, this strayed into horribly creepy territory sometimes (with great effect) - that prolonged scene with the typewriter had me whispering “stop”, terrified at what was unfolding. There are a lot of moments where Calvin is a profoundly unlikeable character, and I suspect someone without Dano’s acting skills or sympathetic demeanour would have struggled to pull it off.
- Still torn on whether the ending is cheap or not - at times, it feels like a convenient exit, but at others it feels like the only natural conclusion. The best advice to others is to watch it - there’s a lot going on here - and make up their own minds.