If you know me, then you know there is no way I wouldn’t see (500) Days of Summer. It’s been hailed as this generation’s Garden State, which is a term I hate, because correct me if I’m wrong, but Garden State came out in 2004. Simple math tells me that 5 years does not make for a new generation. Anyway, exaggerated statements aside, everyone has been clamoring over what a charming powerhouse indie movie this was. I’ve been very excited to see this movie.
When the opening sequence began, it was like a kid opening up his present on Christmas morning. I took off the wrapping, opened the box and inside I found… well… it’s hard to explain. You know that gift that you dream of getting on Christmas, the gift that consumes your every thought during the season? Well, let’s say you don’t get that gift, but you still get a very good gift. The gift is still great, but it just can’t compare to your ideal gift. Enter (500) Days of Summer.
(500) Days of Summer was not a bad movie by any means, in fact, it was pretty darn good. But I was expecting to see a movie that would make my top 10 list. This was not the case. Before I go on, I need to talk about the title of this movie. Why is 500 in parentheses? Is it a design issue or is the “500″ optional, meaning the title of this movie could be Days of Summer? I don’t get it. Anyway, let’s continue.
(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy that is dark in nature. It isn’t a chick flick by any means because there is no clean cut happy ending. It’s life, and life is unpredictable. The plot follows the blossoming relationship of Tom and Summer. As the movie itself opens up with, “This isn’t a love story, but a story about love.”
Tom is played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who is the perfect person for this part. He is able to play the love struck protagonist with such excellence. You can’t help but feel for the guy and relate to all of the different things that he goes through. I hope that he continues to play roles that allow him to show his sensitive but also humorous personality traits.
Zooey Deschanel plays Summer Finn, the next and upcoming indie darling. I walked into the movie wanting to fall in love with her character, but her character was too off the wall for me to actually fall in love with. While I was not drawn to her character, Levitt and Deschanel have no problem playing the chemistry on screen and I never doubted for a second that Levitt was completely in love with Deschanel.
There are a lot of artistic creative liberties in this film, that if they were in any other film would make you say, “WTF?” Some of these artistic decisions work and some of them fall flat. I have to give credit to Marc Webb (director) for trying though.
The first half of the movie follows the traditional boy falls in love with girl arc. But what makes this movie great is the way it ends. The way it ends brings about such rich and profound conclusions about the nature of love, that I found it refreshing to my bitter heart. While the ending is not happy by any means, it still speaks truth into the nature of relationships. In fact, I have so many thoughts on the personal ramifications of this movie, I’ll post on those on Wednesday.
I’d recommend seeing this movie, even if you aren’t into “RomComs.” This is indie enough where it allows itself to take liberties to break out of that traditional genre. I’m giving it a 4 out of 5.
