Writer Dude Manifests Girlfriend Using Only a Typewriter and His Brain

Writer's block is a bitch. It can throw you into a pit of despair, nearly drown you in a pool of self-hatred, suffocate you with feelings of failure. But what if one day, you sat down at your trusty typewriter, and tapped out a character so fully-formed, so nuanced, so complex, so entirely lovely and real, that she materialized on your couch?

This exact thing happening is the premise of Ruby Sparks, the new film by husband-wife directing team Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris (who brought us Little Miss Sunshine). Of course, after that little miracle occurs, a whole load of problems begin for our writer dude (Paul Dano), stemming from, well, the fact that his new girlfriend Ruby isn't real.

Ruby Sparks, starring screenwriter Zoe Kazan, is out tomorrow, July 25.