Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris‘s Ruby Sparks opened yesterday with a D (74% positive) from Rotten Tomatoes and an E (60% positive) from Metacritic. Presumably an assortment of HE readers have seen it by now — the forum is yours. I’m not feeling much of a current out there, but maybe I need to pay closer attention.

I chickened out in my brief 7.19 review by not commenting on Paul Dano‘s lead performance. It doesn’t really invite you “in” because Dano doesn’t have the easy, confident charm that a romantic film (even a curious one) needs, and because there’s something a little too character-quirky or dorky or super-sensitive about the guy.

I didn’t say anything before because Dano and I both come from the same Connecticut town (Wilton) and I’ve run into him four or five times socially and like him personally and didn’t want to hurt his feelings. He’s an excellent actor but I don’t see myself in him. He has his own particular energy, but he lacks that cocksure vibe, that attitude that results in many of us saying, “This guy’s cool…I want to hang with him a bit.”