MovieChat Forums > Ruby Sparks (2012) Discussion > If you think this film was misogynist yo...

If you think this film was misogynist you completely missed the point...

posted 9 years ago by KingoftheAndalsandFirstMen
4 replies | jump to latest

First of all I only just discovered this film and I actually thought it was outstanding.

For everyone who says Cal was a jerk and this film was all about control, they completely missed the point. The gender roles could have easily been reversed and the story would have been just as compelling.

The point of this tale was what would happen if our perfect vision of a mate was suddenly right there in front of us and totally in love with us? That is what happens. Cal wrote a girl who magically came to life and was just as he wrote her. After succumbing to the reality of the situation it becomes Cal's wish NOT to be in control of Ruby. That was the reason for the conversation with his brother. He wanted it to be a real relationship and didn't want to change a thing. He specifically states he wouldn't change anything about her and no longer wishes to write her.

Problem was, when Ruby was left to her own devices and had her own free will, she began to drift away from Cal and appeared to be falling out of love.

That is when Cal, desperately returned to try writing her again. Trying to keep her loving him. But in the end it became apparent. No matter what he wrote, she was never going to love him of her own free will. She only ever loved him because he wrote her that way.

[–] Soodinum 9 years ago

Using misogynist like that is trying to make a noun function as an adjective.

An IC would fix it.

[–] Prelude-in-C-maj 9 years ago

I agree; the film was simply looking at that old adage "Be careful what you wish for....you just might receive it."

The story is a fable warning us that even when we think we've created a "perfect" situation we always wanted, not everything is going to be to our liking.

And that, yes, once she was there, her own free will made her be things he did not want or foresee -- such as drifting away from him, the same messiness that comes into real relationships between real people.

Then he discovered that trying to manipulate her back into being perfect for him started to miss the mark also.

In the end it's a cautionary tale against wanting or expecting perfection or exactly what you want, but instead realizing that it's a human being you're dealing with, and working with whatever happens from there.

He learned that in the end, where we see him getting to start over with a Ruby he's not going to interfere with this time, we can assume.

[–] fluffchop 9 years ago

All he had to do was type Ruby exercises, makes dinner, blows me and then brings me beer. Trust a woman to write a script that completely ruins a perfect situation.

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Scientologists love Narnia, there's plenty of closet space.

[–] murad23 8 years ago

Agreed. The whole point of the film is the Pygmalion myth redone as NOT misogynist because the free will of the Ruby keeps pushing forward and because her creator, Cal, moves away from controlling and defining his creation Ruby.

The people critiquing this film as misogynist are reflecting their own severe lack of education in literature and art as this theme has been used in scores of great works.