6 starts out of 5.
Regular readers will realize I am quite a movie fan. In the last 50 years, I am certain I have seen 1,000, perhaps nearly 2,000 movies. The number of deeply original scripts I have seen can be counted on one hand. Groundhog Day, Memento, a couple of Charlie Kaufman scripts. I am sure I am leaving one or two out, but I am in awe of Ruby Sparks, an incredibly original work by Zoe Kazan who also stars with her boyfriend Paul Dano. If she never writes another screenplay, she will still, like Danny "Groundhog Day" Rubin, live forever in the annals of great, creative screenwriting. The premise, which anyone can tell from the previews, is that a writer manifests his imagined dream girl. The scenes in which they are growing apart made me squirm, as they perfectly captured what I remember of growing apart from my last girlfriend, 35 years ago. I wouldn't have thought I could be touched there after 31 years of successful marriage, but there you are. Some things you never forget, at least at the emotional level. The futility of attempts at control, the ephemeral nature of love, the whole, "If you love her, let her go" ethos are captured here. I bawled like a baby. Since this blog began in 1998, I have never given a film more than five stars. I gave this one six because that's how much I want you to go see it.
Regular readers will realize I am quite a movie fan. In the last 50 years, I am certain I have seen 1,000, perhaps nearly 2,000 movies. The number of deeply original scripts I have seen can be counted on one hand. Groundhog Day, Memento, a couple of Charlie Kaufman scripts. I am sure I am leaving one or two out, but I am in awe of Ruby Sparks, an incredibly original work by Zoe Kazan who also stars with her boyfriend Paul Dano. If she never writes another screenplay, she will still, like Danny "Groundhog Day" Rubin, live forever in the annals of great, creative screenwriting. The premise, which anyone can tell from the previews, is that a writer manifests his imagined dream girl. The scenes in which they are growing apart made me squirm, as they perfectly captured what I remember of growing apart from my last girlfriend, 35 years ago. I wouldn't have thought I could be touched there after 31 years of successful marriage, but there you are. Some things you never forget, at least at the emotional level. The futility of attempts at control, the ephemeral nature of love, the whole, "If you love her, let her go" ethos are captured here. I bawled like a baby. Since this blog began in 1998, I have never given a film more than five stars. I gave this one six because that's how much I want you to go see it.
