“That bubbly, shallow cinematic creature that exists solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.”
The term Manic Pixie Dream Girl was first used by film critic Nathan Rabin in 2005 to describe quirky females used only as romantic interests and plot devices to help the arrested development of a male protagonist. This is a character trope not new or novel to the cinematic world ranging from Sugar in Some Like it Hot, Holly Golightly in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and Sam in Garden State. In Ruby Sparks, writer Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano, There Will Be Blood, Little Miss Sunshine) has hit a slump since his first and only novel. His writer’s block is soon ameliorated through his vivid dreams of a bubbly and stunning woman (Zoe Kazan, happythankyoumoreplease, Me and Orson Welles, And the Writer of Ruby Sparks!) Soon the galloping thunder of a typewriter fills the air and Calvin novelizes his dream girl; dubbing her Ruby Sparks. Calvin starts to fall for his muse, only to find one morning that has she come to life.
This premise reeks of a MPDG, meaning a film with flat female characters and the idealization of women; that women only serve to save men from the pity of their own despair. While Ruby Sparks starts in this fashion, it finds itself usurping this trope. Ruby is everything Calvin could hope for; because he wrote her. However, soon Ruby—just as real women would—begins to yearn for a life beyond a relationship; desiring personal growth and exploration. No matter how much Calvin wishes to bend Ruby to his whim, she only becomes hilariously caricature. While the ending of the movie may be a bit cutesy, the film ultimately takes us down a journey that maybe everyone should go through. It asks us to explore, work, and ultimately—and most importantly—see people. For everything they are, might be, and can be.
In the end, the MPDG is one of those tropes that is inherently flawed. The film gives us the archetypical MPDG and cleverly critiques it to the point that Ruby is no longer just a trope, but a real character. Calvin is punished for buying into such naive fantasies, ultimately breaking from his adolescent mindset. Ruby is no longer the MPDG, but in the end serves the same purpose as an MPDG, meaning did she ever really depart from the trope? Either way, the ever self-aware Ruby Sparks manipulates, affirms, and deconstructs the MPDG, transcending its mundane purposes and fleshes out the honest incorrectness behind idealization and the organically dynamic nature of relationships.
Ruby Sparks delights; it entertains and asks questions of its audience and relationships. The film naturally progresses itself in the same way a relationship would, and as viewers follow Calvin down his journey with Ruby what they end up with is a witty film that manages to charm and captivate, while still discussing themes greater than itself. Truly, a work of fiction come to life.
Pulp Diction 