the end, apparently

well, we survived today

---

Ruby Sparks was a promising film with a solid cast and an intriguing premise. I liked the way it explored the selfish, controlling nature of an immature love and the consequences of letting it get out of hand.

I thought the movie was pretty brave in allowing Calvin, the protagonist, to be an unlikable individual with a generously hideous catalogue of genuine character flaws, as opposed to the generic sugar-coated "faults" that a main character is often affected to possess, which are ultimately compensated for by some inescapably apparent redeeming feature. Whereas with Calvin, you have a character that is plausibly human - not succumbing to simple designations of good or evil, nor submitting to the archetype of the romantic hero - but simply fumbling about on a quest to find or define something and making many terrible mistakes along the way. He has his old wounds and they do affect him visibly, particularly in his interactions with friends (oh wait he has none) and family, but they aren't enough to excuse his actions toward the end of the film.

So far, Calvin is a great, complex, conflicted, classical villain - you have the audience feeling sorry for what he's been through but also kind of hating him for what he's done. Now if this were a typical romantic drama/comedy, the ending would have him eventually overcoming whatever wound(s) that had influenced his disposition, negating that which led him to his regrettable courses of action, transforming him into a new man and consequently turning him into someone deserving of a fresh start or second chance - in other words, he'd end up learning from his mistakes and make a sincere effort toward rectifying them, shifting  the audience's allegiances back in his favour. But this doesn't happen, and that is where the problem begins.

(Spoiler ALART)
What really chafed me about the ending is that they gave him a happy ending without showing he had what it takes not to screw it up again. Sure, he wrote a book and said that he was sorry, but that's hardly enough to demonstrate real development. The film offers no real penalty - aside from the pain of losing Ruby, which turns out to be only temporary anyway - no confrontation of consequence, no justice. Instead of being subjected to biting eventuality, our real and believable character is instead treated to some strange form of purgatory - a time-out session effectively. Plus, Ruby has no say in the matter. She doesn't decide to forgive him or take him back (goodness knows why she'd want to), she just has her memory magically erased by the overwhelming virtue of Calvin's self-pity and regret, which we're meant to mistake for love, refined and made true by the fires of contrition and sorrow (I'm assuming that's what it must have been) and everything's fine and peachy again. If she had considered his tortuous apology and appeal, and decided to love him again, warts and all, and in spite of his disastrous track record, that would have at least been somewhat poignant, if supremely cliched. In fact, I would gladly have traded the whole Happily Ever After idea for something bittersweet like "and Calvin continued to make money off his misery while Ruby lived a real life."

Perhaps in allowing her to be free (I hear feminists fetching their pitchforks), he is implied to have outgrown his selfish and jealous nature, but people have done kinder things in fits of remorse or intense madness; a kind word doesn't constitute a saint. Similarly, a book and sad puppy dog eyes do not a good boyfriend make. A change in character must be verified by some visibly consistent and sustained difference in practice. Also, the mere act of giving her up for good does not provide that he cares about her more than himself - people sometimes do the right things for the wrong reasons. It takes a lifetime to build a reputation and only moments to ruin it. My chief complaint is that Calvin is let off the hook before we see any hint of an attempt to rebuild.

I'm all for innovative subversion of formulaic expectations, and perhaps the filmmakers set out to defy the conventions of plot with this movie, but if so I just wish they had done it differently.