Ruby Sparks

Calvin, former 'boy wonder' in literary circles, has not been writing anything measuring up to his successful debut novel. He spends his days talking to his shrink, working out with his brother Harry and walking his dog Scotty, who he only got in order to meet people (preferably girls) that will come up to pet the dog. But Scotty is far too scared of other people.

He has dreams of the same girl that he cannot quite remember. Until one day he does and he starts writing about her on his old typewriter, his dream girl, and calls her Ruby Sparks. Over the next few days, he is writing in a frenzy and Scotty starts bringing him random things, clearly belonging to a woman.

Then one day, Ruby appears. He first thinks that she is a figment of his imagination until he realizes that other people can see her as well. He has created his dream girl. His brother Harry does not believe him, of course, until Calvin introduces her to Ruby and the brothers decide to try out what Calvin is able to change about her by simply writing it down. He makes her speak French as prove that this is actually happening.

At first, everything is fine and Calvin decides to never write about her again so that he can keep her forever. But soon after Ruby meets Calvin's family, their relationship turns into something less magical and more normal. After a while, Ruby wants to spend a little time without Calvin and suggest that she spent one day per week at her place. So Calvin is lonely again and does - contrary to his earlier decision - write about Ruby again. He makes her clingy. This does not work for him and when she gets really desperate about him having let go of her hand to answer the phone, he writes her happy.

When things finally come to blows (and of course, they would) and Ruby wants to leave him, he shows her what he has written about her and to prove to her that he can make her do whatever he wants, he does just that. She runs against an innocent wall, she starts speaking French, she snaps her finger, she sings and strips, she jumps and yells compliments at Calvin....until the letters on the old typewriter slam up and she falls to the floor.

Then he finishes the story, writing her out of his life and retiring his old typewriter.

He rewrites the story again as fiction (on a a laptop). And then, just for that magical ending, he meets her in real life.

7/10

12 Years a Slave

This is the film that won Best Film (Drama) at last night's Golden Globe Awards. This was the only award it received. Strangely enough, neither of the two nominated actors - Chiwetel Ejiofor, Lupita Nyong'o - took home a statue, which is a shame, really. Granted, I have not seen all the films that travel the award circuit this season and cannot attest to either Matthew McConaughey's or Jennifer Lawrence's (the two the afore mentioned lost to) performances in their respective films yet but the one has lost a lot of weight for his film and the other has been Hollywood's darling for the last couple of years (and kudos to them) and this clearly needs to be lauded over actual acting performances.

To the film at hand. Yes, it is about a slavery but fortunately it is not of the sappy kind. The tale unfolds slowly and is told quietly, with only occasional burst of extreme violence.

It is the true story of Solomon Northup, a free man in New York state, who gets lured to Washington D.C. under false pretenses and kidnapped and sold to a slave trader. He first ends up at the plantation of one Mr. Ford, who is not an evil man and probably thinks of himself as someone caught in the system he has no way of opposing. After a fight with the vicious foreman, Solomon is sold on to Edwin Epps. On the Epps property, his name is changed to Platt and his new labor is picking cotton. Epps - unlike Ford - is indeed an evil man and drunkard, proudly calling the slaves his property. He is sexually obsessed with the slave girl Patsey, much to his wife's chagrin. Mistress Epps tries repeatedly to have him sell Patsey and - as he refuses - throws a bottle at her and later scratches her barely healed face. All this, to get back at her husband.

Solomon, meanwhile, tries to survive and does not admit to being able to read and write as to not draw any attention to himself. He does once reach out to a white man picking cotton with him. He asks him to send a letter for him, but the guy immediately tells on him. Solomon can appease Epps by telling him that the man is lying and only trying to get Epps to make him foreman.

After more than a decade in slavery, he finally meets someone he can trust with his story and giving word to his friends and family. Bass, a Canadian who is on the property to build a gazebo does make his opposition to slavery clear and helps Solomon by writing to his folks on his behalf. Solomon is picked up by an old friend and returns to his family for a tearful reunion.

The cast in this is absolutely fantastic (see top of the page).

8/10