Revision and envision: Relationships ain't easy, even when rewritten

The magical event that happens in the life of a young novelist named Calvin Weir-Fields is a dream come true for him, but it becomes a nightmare. Calvin (Paul Dano) had the misfortune to write, in his late teens, a book that was loved and treasured by just about everyone. He's been blocked ever since. I imagine J.D. Salinger having gone through torture like this.

Calvin makes the mistake of seeing a psychiatrist, although anyone who writes for a living would tell him there is only one thing to do when you're blocked, and that is to start writing again anyway. Calvin never needed to write for a living. A windfall came to him essentially through no effort, and now he expects the Muse to dictate another perfect novel immediately. Turns out the shrink (Elliott Gould) is not needed because the Muse appears in the flesh and gets right to work.

This is an ethereal backlit beauty named Ruby (Zoe Kazan), who materializes in Calvin's life and represents his ideal romantic partner. Surely she's too good to be real? Not at all. She is absolutely real, as Calvin's disbelieving brother, Harry (Chris Messina), discovers after he comes over to see for himself. Calvin discovers that he can control this young woman, however, by the words that he writes. In a sense, that takes all the fun out of it– but there's no use trying to reason with Zoe Kazan's original screenplay, which (perhaps wisely) makes no effort to explain how this happens. Full Review