Culture

My expectations for this film were pretty non-existent, although I’d heard it was directed by the same duo that made Little Miss Sunshine, which gave me hope. I was also vaguely aware that it was about an author whose female character comes to life as his girlfriend, and anything he writes about her becomes true. This made me think it might be creepy. It was.

The film’s protagonist, Calvin, is played by Paul Dano, who was Dwayne in Little Miss Sunshine. His love interest, the film’s namesake, is played by Zoe Kazan. At first I thought the casting was odd, simply because Kazan also wrote the screenplay, and who makes themselves the love interest? But then I Wikipedia-d the film, and it turns out she and Dano are in a long-term relationship. Makes sense. In real life, Kazan wrote the screenplay and Dano acted a character she’d written; in the film, he writes a novel, and she’s a character in that novel. This is getting too meta for me.

I like to think in parables, so here’s what I think this film is saying – if you are an artist, you are in a position of power in your relationship and you can use your art to manipulate your partner into being the person you want them to be, as opposed to the person they are. I found this film disjointed, yet very disturbing simply because of its implications. It’s advertised as a “romantic comedy-drama”. That’s misleading. There were five people in the cinema when I saw this film – myself and two couples. I was the only person who left smiling. Don’t take your partner.

2.5 / 5 stars