After writing a bestseller while in high school, Calvin Weir-Fields (Paul Dano) is trying to find some inspiration. His therapist suggests that he write down a recurring dream he has of a pretty girl named Ruby Sparks. As he starts to write he loses himself in the work, creating a narrative of a woman he begins to fall in love with. After a manic few weeks of writing, he has a near complete portrait of a woman he would love to have deep conversations with, go to the park with, and maybe even marry.
Then one morning Ruby Sparks (Zoe Kazan)—the now real, embodied person—is living in his apartment. As her author, Calvin goes on an emotional and psychological journey to discover what an actual relationship entails. He finds that his past relationships have been very self-centered. The film is an allegory for the complexity and joy that real relationships can have; it also exposes the limitations of our simplistic fantasies and our illusions about what we desire. Available on disc now; rated R for language and sexual content.