Ruby Sparks

Stories with a single, solitary idea attached, trying to convey a message. Something almost childishly simple, something that looks childish but with a twist, with a dark edge. In the past we've had Greek Mythology, then Grimm's Fairy Tales and now we have Urban Legends. This is a very well played out Urban Legend indeed. Central concept - what would happen if you wrote your perfect woman into existence?

Brought to us by Jonothan Dayton and Valarie Faris, Ruby Sparks tells us the story of one-hit-wonder teen romance writer Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood) who is set a task by his therapist (Elliot Gould, Friends) to write about someone who likes him, despite his flaws. In a dream, inspiration strikes and in comes the idea of the quirky, fun painter Ruby (Zoey Kazan, Me and Orson Welles and writer of the film) - with whom, he promptly falls in love........ Then, he wakes up one day, and she's making him breakfast.

Here we have the set up, the problems it presents; do you have the right to change her, is there such a thing as perfection, will your perfect woman love you back, and what effect will that sort of power have on someone? We've got a good story-line, a great line to go down, and unfortunately only in parts, a good movie. I'll get to the flaws later. I think we have an interesting nod towards the idea of cloning ethics, which is fairly high-brow for what appears to be a silly rom-com, but that seems to be what is lurking in the background for the entirety of the film. And not just that, but the story does justice to such a topic, in an enjoyable way.

On the subject of enjoy-ability lies the problem. It is grasping at straws to find reasons to include certain plot points, when realistically, they could have been cut entirely and a shorter film made. I found myself checking how long I had been in the cinema a couple of times, purely due to the pointless nature of some of the middle scenes. So, as a story, it works totally and for that, if you have the patience, go and see it. As a movie, it falls short a little just plainly for dragging in the middle, because I did come out of it having heard a better story than I expected, but having seen an average film.

The one film I'd recommend if you liked this would be Limitless, which has the same basic idea and feel behind it - but all in all, probably a better film, if having a totally ridiculous premise.