History Film / RubySparks

Calvin (Creator/PaulDano) was once a TeenGenius author; 10 years later, he has serious cases of depression and WritersBlock. His only inspiration is Ruby Sparks, the ManicPixieDreamGirl of his (literal) dreams. After writing a doorstopper SelfInsertFic about her, he wakes up one morning to find Ruby (Kazan) [[PygmalionPlot in his kitchen]].

* RewritingReality: Calvin writes about a beautiful woman who comes to life. He finds that anything he writes about her affects her.

* HeroesWantRedHeads:
** Downplayed with Ruby, whose hair has red tones, but looks either auburn or brown in different lights.
** Calvin's mother.

* HeroesWantRedheads:

* FantasticAesop: Despite his penchant for making Ruby overly dependent on him, on at least one occasion Calvin tries to give her character more autonomy ("Ruby was just Ruby, however she felt."). The result -- Ruby just sits around all day -- is an arbitrarily negative one, which taints the Aesop somewhat.

* PygmalionPlot: Literally. Thinking about ''Pygmalion'' is what inspired Zoe Kazan's story.

* PopCulturalOsmosisFailure: Ruby has never heard of the writer Creator/FScottFitzgerald.

* DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest: The girl Calvin meets at the end of the movie, played by Kazan but now with shorter hair.

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]]. Calvin abuses Ruby and finally makes her free. He misses her and cannot make it up with her as expected, because she actually literally disappeared. [[spoiler: But eventually, he meets a DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest who might be Ruby herself, "released from her past".]]

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]]. Calvin abuses Ruby and finally makes her free. He misses her and cannot make it up with her as expected, because she actually literally disappeared. [[spoiler: But eventually, he meets a DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest.]]

* TomatoInTheMirror: Calvin keeps it a secret that Ruby was a fictional character who came to life. When she finds out, it is not pretty.

* {{Adorkable}}
** Calvin and Ruby.
** Mabel.

''Ruby Sparks'' is a 2012 RomanticComedy film, directed by Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (of ''LittleMissSunshine'' fame) and [[WrittenByCastMember written by]] Creator/ZoeKazan.

''Ruby Sparks'' is a 2012 RomanticComedy film, directed by [[Film/LittleMissSunshine Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris]] and [[WrittenByCastMember written by]] Creator/ZoeKazan.

* GoneHorriblyRight: [[spoiler: Calvin rewrites Ruby to be "miserable without him" and sure enough she soon becomes incredibly clingy and dependant on him, to the point she misses him while he's eating breakfast ''beside her'' and has a breakdown on the street because he let go of her hand while they were walking. Once she becomes an emotional wreck he decides to counter this [[GettingSmiliesPaintedOnYourSoul by writing her as being constantly euphoric]]. Which makes her an insufferably happy individual, who looks like she's about to burst into song any second. When he corrects this by writing that "Ruby was just Ruby, however she felt." she ends up getting absolutely lost emotionally, complete with wild mood swings and ends up constantly watching TV for days.]]

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: Calvin wrote Ruby as a completely isolated and orphaned character. Apparently her parents died when she was young.

** Calvin doesn't want the chair offered by his step dad. Cut the the next scene with them driving off with the chair in the backseat.

* ItsAllAboutMe: There's no denying Calvin is very self absorbed. [[spoiler: His ex Lila attempts to call him out on this, unintentionally describing most of his relationship problems with Ruby in the process.]]

* MeetCute: Happens to Calvin with both Ruby and her DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest at the end. Apparently the shrink's advice to use Scotty as a way of making contact worked out after all.

* MoodDissonance: The climatic scene, Ruby is barking like a dog, doing sexy dancing, and spinning around [[spoiler:while crying her eyes out, and Calvin is in a full AGodAmI mode, but is also crying, and the whole thing plays off as a rape scene]].

* MuseAbuse: The relationship started well, turned abusive. Although Calvin did managed to finish the book based on Ruby after he repents.

* BreakUpMakeUpScenario: [[DoubleSubversion Double subverted]]. Calvin abuses Ruby and finally makes her free. He misses her and cannot make it up with her as expected, because she actually litterally disappeared. But eventually, he meets a DoppelgangerReplacementLoveInterest.

* WriteWhatYouKnow: Discussed by Calvin's brother in-universe as the proper way of writing.
* YouNeedToGetLaid: Calvin brother's opinion about his lacking love life at the start of the movie.

* MagicRealism: about a writer who dashes off twenty pages about his perfect woman in a fit of inspiration. When said perfect woman appears in the flesh in his apartment, at first he freaks out, but soon he accepts it as a bona fide miracle.

-> ''She's out of his mind.''

* HardWorkMontage: After his WritersBlock is broken, we get a montage showing Calvin working hard on his story about Ruby.

* MagicRealism

* MeetCute: Happens to Calvin with both Ruby and her ReplacementLoveInterest at the end. Apparently the shrink's advice to usie the dog as a way of making contact worked out after all.

* RunningGag

* PygmalionPlot: Literally. Thinking about ''Pygmalion'' is what inspired Zoe Kazan's story.

!!Tropes

* ReplacementLoveInterest: The girl Calvin meets at the end of the movie, played by Kazan but now with shorter hair.

* RewritingReality

* TomatoInTheMirror: Ruby. Calvin breaks it to her with the WhamLine: You're not real. I made you up."

* BilingualBonus: Ruby's French line in the kitchen.

* ConversationCut: When Calvin find Ruby with the party host in the pool, he pulls her away and they drive home. Cut to his apartment door where he finally asks her what was going on.

** On their first morning Calvin tries to leave the apartment alone but Ruby asks if she could tag along. He refuses. Cut to them driving off together in his car.

* ItsAllAboutMe: There's no denying Calvin is very self absorbed. [[spoiler: His ex Lila attempts to call him out this, unintentionally describing most of his relationship problems with Ruby in the process.]]

* MeetCute: Averted. Ruby's initial manifestation is rife with awkwardness, as she acts like a very confused and concerned girlfriend/roommate, and Calvin acts like it's the beginning of his nervous breakdown.

* [[spoiler: ReplacementLoveInterest: The girl Calvin meets at the end of the movie, played by Kazan but now with shorter hair.]]

** Calvin: "I started seeing her this morning. It's like that movie ''Theatre/{{Harvey}}."

* YouNeedToGetLaid: Calvin brother's opinion at the start of the movie.

* ActingForTwo: [[spoiler: Kazan played both the titular character and said character's IdenticalStranger that Calvin met at the end.]]

* BilingualBonus

* RealLifeRelative: Real-life sweethearts Creator/PaulDano and Creator/ZoeKazan plays the film's OfficialCouple. [[spoiler: [[DoubleSubversion Well]], [[IdenticalStranger sort]]-[[ReplacementLoveInterest of]].]]

* ShoutOut: Several to Creator/BillyWilder movies and possibly one to ''Series/ArrestedDevelopment''. Alia Shawkat plays a girl named Mabel. In ''Arrested Development'', her character was called Maeby.

* UnsympatheticComedyProtagonist: Calvin spends the majority of the film being self-absorbed and expecting the relationship to revolve around him. Once Ruby starts expressing the desire for space and her own friends [[spoiler: Calvin attempts to start re-writing her into someone more dependant on him.]]. And it's not just Ruby, either: he spends the entire time visiting his mother's house sulking and writing and obviously dislikes his mom's boyfriend.

Kazan wrote the screenplay for herself and her boyfriend, playing respectively a fictional character made real and the author who created her. [[RealitySubtext Very meta.]]