Ruby Sparks Reviews

Displaying a self-confidence that would put Muhammad Ali to shame, Kazan has cast herself as her real-life boyfriend's fantasy woman.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5

...this is a complete vanity project.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Ruby Sparks means well, but I believe it is an awful film, an unintentionally uncomfortable experience I'd like to forget about as soon as possible.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/10

Rather than being Stranger Than Fiction with insightful gender politics, Ruby Sparks is more a hipster Weird Science.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5

Assaults the audience with such an unending charm offensive that what initially seems cute becomes cutesy, and what feels quirky descends into twee.

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It's refreshing to see a premise such as this one treated to a nonsmarmy telling. But the picture, intelligent but mild, has more of a 10-volt hum than a true spark.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

"Ruby Sparks" is a closed system that gradually turns in on itself. There isn't enough of someone else.

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On paper, it sounds like a delight. In practice, though, Ruby Sparks -- which boasts only the occasional twinkle -- mostly just fizzles.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Never gets beyond feeling like a Stephen King fable about the dangers of getting too invested in your own writing.

Full Review | Original Score: 5.5/10

Ruby Sparks diminishes its own stakes from the start, and nothing that happens in this breezy, ineffective rom-com does anything to improve that.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5

The problem in the screenplay is its lack of imagination, oddly enough, which is demonstrated by repetition of the central idea - instead of a satisfactory development of it

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So it falls short - which makes it an especially frustrating experience. There's so much to like and so many potentially interesting ideas to embrace that I really wanted it to work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5

I think the problem with Ruby Sparks is that it's never really sure what the rules are.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4

I wanted to send everyone in Ruby Sparks to a treatment centre for the terminally winsome. A de-schmaltz clinic.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

A big waste of a lot of talent.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5

Where's writer's block when you really need it?

Full Review | Original Score: 2/4

Star Zoe Kazan's...written a hell of a role for herself, a showcase for every type of mood and emotion, but the directors haven't succeeded in making the tale take on a life of its own

Full Review | Original Score: C+

A tepidly humored cerebral gimmicky fantasy film.

Full Review | Original Score: C

[B]arely distinguishable from other similar tales of young men who need a schooling in the realities of not being a selfish jerk, with one glaring exception: ... this one is all about teaching Calvin that -- spoiler! -- women are people.

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far too derivative of other angsty independent romances that it failed to keep my attention

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/5