Ruby Sparks is the story of Calvin (Paul Dano; Knight and Day, Little Miss Sunshine), a young novelist who achieved crazy success early in his career. He is struggling right now from severe writer’s block and a lack of a romantic life. The only kind of play that he is getting are from groupies (who knew there were author groupies? I didn’t) and girls in how dreams. When his therapist gives him an assignment, he makes a breakthrough and creates a character named Ruby who inspires him. When Calvin finds Ruby (Zoe Kazan; It’s Complicated, The Private Lies of Pippa Lee), in the flesh, sitting on his couch about a week later, he is completely stunned that his words have turned into a living, breathing person. From there we see the dynamics of a relationship where one person is the perfect person for them and what happens when that perfect person starts to change and come into their own.

I didn’t really know what to expect from this movie. I hadn’t seen a trailer and all I knew was that it was it was done by the director of Little Miss Sunshine. I liked that movie so I figured I’d probably like this one, which I did. Like Little Miss Sunshine, Ruby Sparks is cute, funny, and very quirky. It’s a smart romantic movie without most of the usual clichéd mess that comes with romantic comedies. I liked Kazan. The movie is written by her and I was very surprised because I didn’t know she was so talented. The only thing I had seen her in was It’s Complicated as Meryl Streep’s daughter and she didn’t have a big part in the movie. I would put Ruby Sparks in the realm of recent romantic movies like 500 Days of Summer that also starred another funny, quirky girl, Zooey DesChanel. It starts off pretty fun and funny then it gets kind of dark. I would recommend this movie. The acting is pretty good and the story is pretty well written. Check out Ruby Sparks in theaters now.