Basking In The Warm Glow of Summer

(500) Days of Summer Review

While some critics have accused (500) Days of Summer of being a mainstream rom com in indie clothing, I think that the movie has a lot more going for it than a great soundtrack, attractive leads, and a clever narrative structure.

It's possible that this kind of thing goes in cycles, but it really feels like my generation is dealing with the death of romance at the dawn of the 21st century. As we continue to deal with the ramifications of the sexual revolution, redefined gender roles, and other changing cultural values related to relationships it can be more than a little difficult to navigate these shifting seas and still find meaning in how we relate to one another and how we define love and commitment. Granted, (500) Days doesn't examine these subjects in the deepest most heart-wrenching fashion possible, but it is the core dilemma of the film.

The premise of (500) Days is pretty simple: Boy falls in love with girl. Girl does not fall in love with him. Boy of course, pursues girl in defiance of reality and her stated opinion on the subject of love: she doesn't believe in it. At least not the magical, there's someone special for everyone, kind of nonsense that the boy buys into. The boy in this case is Tom, played with great charm and heart-on-his-sleeve sincerety by Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Tom is an aspiring architect that fell into a holding pattern of self-doubt and now works at a greeting card company - a place that represents the hollowest kind of sentimentality expressed between people that is used to great comic effect later in the film. It's there that he meets the boss's new assistant, the aloof but fascinating Summer, played with a sense of straightforward but un-malicious selfishness by Zooey Deschanel.

The last time Joseph Gordon-Levitt starred in a romantic comedy was 1999's light but enjoyable 10 Things I Hate About You, a modern day retelling of Shakespeare's Taming of The Shrew. In the 10 years since, he's been doing amazing work in a number of darker dramatic films often featuring characters that are damaged or dealing with loss. Two of those films, Mysterious Skin (2004) and Brick (2005) rank among my favorites of the last decade. After 10 years of these more serious roles it's nice to see him in a part that showcases the comedic skills he honed during his six years on Third Rock From The Sun. Don't get me wrong, there's plenty of sincere pathos in Gordon-Levitt's portrayal of broken-hearted Tom, but a lot of his suffering is played for laughs in the film.

Zooey Deschanel has been in a lot of films in the last 10 years, but the only other role I've seen her in was as Trillian in 2005's The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. So I don't really have a good gauge of whether Summer's wide-eyed enigmatic demeanor is a stretch for her or not. Regardless, she's great in this role. A lot of guys might walk away feeling like she's the villain of the story, but in reality both she and Tom make the mistake of expecting other people to deal on their terms. At least she's honest from the start about her position even as Tom tries to play down his own feelings.

The opening narration in the film declares that "this is not a love story" and it's true. While characters do fall in (and out of) love during the course of the film, this is really a film about the life cycle of a relationship. The examination of that relationship is done within a non-linear narrative structure, jumping back and forth providing for some interesting insights and a lot of comedic contrasts as we trace the origins, growth, and death of Tom and Summer's coupling. That same broken structure keeps the pace going and the tone light at the expense of feeling deeply connected to the characters' plight through a good portion of the film. (500) Days does manage to get you thinking about your own experience with heartbreak without pulling on your heart strings to do so.

The script for (500) Days is sharp but not overly artificial. Tom and Summer come across as naturally funny and articulate without ever being arch. I have a love for the stilted over-eloquent dialogue of Diablo Cody and Kevin Smith, but it's nice to see characters with distinctive voices in a film like this that are more than just mouthpieces for the writer.

Overall (500) Days is a strong debut for director Marc Webb. The film includes some stylish flourishes that really elevate the material for me. There's a post coital dance number on the streets of Los Angeles, a split-screen in which we see the difference between how Tom expected a situation to play out versus reality, and my favorite, a montage of cinematic love letters in which Tom appears in film clips that reference classic French New Wave cinema and Bergman's The Seventh Seal in which we see Tom, in the throes of rejection, accosted by a mime and beaten at chess by a foul-mouthed cupid.

There's a lot in (500) Days that reminds me very much of my own friends and our mid-20's experiences. We too have told jokes about Jesus' abs. We too have made a sport out of saying inappropriate words and phrases loudly in public (although our phrase of choice wasn't "penis," it was "butt-sex"). We too have faced down our fears to pursue long-delayed dreams. We too had to put aside childish ideas about love without giving up on it altogether. We too have found humor in tragedy and pulled hope out of heartbreak.

9.5/10

As an added bonus, I'd like to share a scene from early on in the film in which Tom and Summer's relationship is compared to Sid & Nancy.

That scene inspired the following brilliant short video, in which the director and stars of (500) Days explore that relationship dynamic further!