Ruby Sparks - My Fabulous Girlfriend

Finding the one person who is perfect for you is not always easy. You could even say that it's almost impossible to find the perfect partner. You'd have to create that one for yourself. For Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano), that's exactly what becomes a reality. A few years ago, Calvin was hailed as a literary prodigy, but now he suffers from extreme writer's block, which also makes it nearly impossible for him to find the woman for life. But after a dream that felt miraculously real, Calvin comes up with the idea for a new literary character: Ruby Sparks, a woman he truly falls in love with while writing. But when Ruby (Zoe Kazan) shows up at his apartment one morning and everything he's written about her seems real, the writer finally doubts his sanity. It must be a bad joke or a very intense fantasy. But Ruby actually turns out to be a real person who enriches Calvin's life immensely. And if things do get too tiring, all he has to do is sit down at his typewriter and change Ruby into what he wants her to be. But of course, this power over the woman he loves is not without consequences.

With Ruby Sparks - My Fabulous Girlfriend, directing duo Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris deliver the long-awaited follow-up to their surprise hit Little Miss Sunshine. In their very own twist on the classic Pygmalion saga, it's not a sculptor who creates his ideal woman through his hands, but a writer through his mind. Lead actress Zoe Kazan's script modernizes the classic myth with plenty of bite, original humor and true-to-life dramatization. The result is mostly very funny, refreshingly unconventional, and very charmingly staged.

Paul Dano, who previously worked with Dayton and Faris on Little Miss Sunshine, is perfectly cast as the slightly cranky young writer who just can't handle the enormous pressure that's been on him since his freshman success. Zoe Kazan makes the perfect foil to Calvin as Ruby, who is literally out of this world. Whether simply adorable, clingy in a fanatical way, hysterical, or frustrated, Kazan more than convincingly delivers all of these different facets of her character. But the rest of the cast is also impressive. Chris Messina is just as wonderful as Calvin's brother Harry, as is Antonio Banderas as esoteric stepfather Mort, or Steve Coogan as lecherous agent Langdon Tharp.

So both the actors and the story are really good fun, especially in the first half. But then the whole thing takes on a lot of darker forms and almost seems depressing because of its closeness to reality. This hard break with the looseness of the first half of the movie might offend some viewers. However, it's worth not giving up on the film even if the laughs fail to materialize. Because even if the whole thing isn't as much fun towards the end as it was at the beginning, the path the story takes is only consistent. And even if reality triumphs over fiction in the end, the viewer won't really leave the cinema depressed. Because first and foremost Ruby Sparks - My Fabulous Girlfriend is a modern fairy tale that wants to give its viewers two beautiful hours of the most beautiful escape from reality. And despite its darker overtones, the film succeeds very well indeed.

Although Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris don't quite match the charm of Little Miss Sunshine, their new directorial effort is once again a prime example of American arthouse cinema of the particularly entertaining, charmingly quirky and endearingly funny kind. You should definitely get to know this fabulous friend - that's why Ruby Sparks gets a more than deserved: Worth seeing!

An article by Frankfurt-Tipp