Great Character: Ruby (“Middle of Nowhere”)
The Great Character theme for the month: Women Written by Women. Today: Ruby from the 2012 movie Middle of Nowhere, written and directed by Ava DuVernay. Here is GITS contributor Jason Cuthbert’s post on this Great Character:
Before Ava DuVernay became the first Golden Globe-nominated director of African-American decent and female gender for the Oscar-winning Martin Luther King film Selma, she emerged as the first African-American female director to win the coveted Best Director Prize at the Sundance Film Festival in 2012 for Middle of Nowhere.
The screenwriting/directing journey of this talented trailblazer was the complete opposite of ordinary. Instead of film school, Ava DuVernay’s background includes a B.A. dual major in English and African American studies from UCLA, formidable recording and performing as a hip hop artist in a female group called Figures of Speech, a public relations career that marketed projects for the likes of Steven Spielberg and Clint Eastwood, and the creation of the African-American Film Festival Releasing Movement (AFFRM).
Middle of Nowhere puts the South Central Los Angeles environment Ava DuVernay was raised in on display with an authentic, feminine Compton California character Ruby expressed by Emayatzy Evett Corinealdi.
Middle of Nowhere from IMDB:
When her husband is sentenced to eight years in prison, Ruby drops out of medical school in order to focus on her husband’s well-being while he’s incarcerated — leading her on a journey of self-discovery in the process.
Sharing the name of a precious gem, Ruby struggles to shine underneath the gray cloud of her husband Derek’s (Omar Hardwick) eight-year prison sentence, five with good time. Ruby is not some inner city Hollywood stereotype of a loud, four-letter word spouting, half-nude femme-fatal gold digger.
Ruby is an articulate medical student who values her self-worth and much like DuVernay herself, is into independent films. Another seismic shift in Ruby’s character is that she is so un-selfish that she is willing to put medical school on hold, for better or for worse, to remain accessible to her incarcerated hubby’s telephone calls.
RUBY: I can’t get down here on weekends around labs. I’ll miss every call you make during the day.
Against Derek’s insistence that she continues her goals, Ruby refuses to allow him to feel alone behind the cold, cavernous walls of his confinement.
RUBY: I’m your wife. I’d fully expect you to be here if the tables were turned.
There is instantly an angelic, saintly aesthetic to Ruby that transcends the materialistic maidens that turn many predictable movie marriages rotten. She finds fulfillment and purpose in being the electric emotional circuit that keeps the lights on inside Derek’s dimming dungeon of defeat. How often do we come across a character with enough strength to look at her significant other’s 5–8 years behind bars as a sacrifice of distance that she is willing to accept without batting an eyelash?
RUBY: You are me.
The fight inside Ruby is deep, providing various organic obstacles that multiply and manifest from the separation of her marriage partner. She strives to remain committed to Derek, to keep him from doing his entire 8-years, to try and sweeten the sour vibe tainting her immediate family (Mom, sister and nephew) to deal with his daughter’s mother and his suspicious male friend, all while attempting to keep her head financially above sea level in the midst of her husband’s absent income.
RUBY: Be clear. Be very clear. This is over when I say it’s over. You don’t know me.
Just how dedicated is Ruby? We get a jolt of intense desperation as she refuses to take no for an answer from his impatiently installment-billed lawyer.
RUBY: This is our life. I don’t know if this is some kind of ethics violation or what. But I will be contacting the bar and every professional organization you belong to.
Prior to becoming the Civil Rights giant Martin Luther King for DuVernay’s Selma, David Oyelowo plays Ruby’s persistently flirtatious bus driver Brian who shows her a positive, alternative life path she could be pursuing. Ruby’s reluctance transforms into curiosity after learning that her intimate commitment to Derek hasn’t been reciprocated.
RUBY: Uncle Derek likes to do dirt, while Aunt Rube watches.
The familiar spirit of the absent Derek is haunting Ruby’s lonely moments, making her second guess her stability. But instead of Ruby’s life strictly revolving around merely being that of a scorned wife, she makes time to recapture her own happiness and desire to be fulfilled.
RUBY: This is not how we are supposed to be living. Betraying each other.
Ruby is ironically a prisoner also, with invisible bars and transparent correctional officers that hold her hostage in her own mind. The only crime she feels she committed is turning a blind eye to the ones her husband indulged in. The depiction of her psychological incarceration in her own normal life adds dramatic weight to those that lost love ones when they become relocated into a penitentiary.
RUBY: Derek, where are you now? For all these years the answer was easy and clear. You were with me. Now, it’s all unclear. We are somewhere in between. In between the forgotten and the foreseen. In a middle place. It scares me.
For her quietly warrior-like inner-strength, for her incredible focus on putting her family first and her emotionally draining reintroduction to happiness — Ruby is one vital, valuable GREAT CHARACTER.
This is a terrific indie film and I highly recommend it. You may read my June 2013 interview with Ava DuVernay in which we discuss Middle of Nowhere by going here.
Many thanks to Jason for sharing this analysis of her character. You may follow him on Twitter: @A2Jason. More important, please read this:
My name is Jason Cuthbert, a GoIntoTheStory.com contributor to GREAT CHARACTERS since June 8th 2012. I’m directing my very first feature length documentary entitled: “COLOURING BOOK: The Mixed Race Documentary” that compares diversity in the United States to Canada, through three generations of my own multicultural family. Academic experts and animated segments will be blended in to enhance the educational value of the core storyline. My team and I are currently raising funds at SeedandSpark.com to finance equipment for “COLOURING BOOK,” as well as future documentaries and scripted narratives. Any support would be incredibly appreciated.
CONTACT INFORMATION:
Website Link: http://www.colouringbook.info
Campaign Link: http://www.seedandspark.com/studio/colouring-book-productions
Jason’s Twitter Handle: @A2Jason
Colouring Book Twitter Handle: @ColouringBk
There are at two damn good reasons to throw some support Jason’s way. First, this looks like a fascinating and worthy documentary. Second, a show of gratitude to Jason for his steadfast contributions to this blog and to the life of the online screenwriting community with his insightful weekly Great Character posts.
There are only 10 days left in the campaign and the project is about two-thirds of the way there. Please show your support for this worthy documentary.
To contribute to Colouring Book, go here.