I am going to apologize in advance here. I’ve been having my mind BLOWN by Paul Thomas Anderson for the past week and he is quickly becoming my new favorite director so everything else now seems inferior.
Lets get to it.
(500) Days of Summer is a romantic comedy with a little bit of a twist. Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (who has been in a slew of small and interesting movies including Brick and Mysterious skin and who will also be in the new G.I. Joe flick coming out August 7th) is a lover of epic proportion. Growing up listening too closely to British pop rock with inexperienced ears, Tom believes whole-heartedly in true love, fate, and destiny. I feel for Tom. I am Tom. Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, who I have had a pretty sizable crush on since her performance in 2002’s Elf, is the exact opposite. Here lies the conflict. They meet, she’s wonderful, and he falls hopelessly in love while she remains unwilling to let go of her bitter beliefs about love. I know that girl. This movie had me at hello.
An appropriate tagline sums it up in a few words. This is not a love story. It is a story about love. Unconventional would sum it up in a word. I was tickled by the little vignettes sprinkled throughout this film, especially the nod to Fellini (or was it Bergman?)… either way, spot on. The story unfolds in a non-linear fashion, and to be honest, it felt like a gimmick. I really didn’t feel like it added anything to the plot and was just put to use in order to give the feeling of disorientation, which was unnecessary. Critics will dispute this and I understand why this choice was made, I just feel it would have felt like a fuller, more complete film if it had been told following a linear story line.
While I will applaud the climax of the movie for being unconventional, I really felt like the dénouement was in opposition to what they were trying to accomplish in the first place and therefore took away from the overall experience. The opening 10 minutes and closing 10 minutes of a film are important, not as important as I used to think, but important none-the-less. I suspect, however, that this was something imposed by the studio, at least that will be my excuse to help me sleep tonight.
I will certainly revisit this film on DVD and maybe my sentiments will change but as of right now I feel like the director Marc Webb was on the verge of a brilliant movie that fell a little short. With that being said, falling just a little short of brilliant isn’t too bad a place to be.
My Vote: A touching Rom-Com that breaks the mold. Check it out.
Kyle Retter - i hate movie reviews
Copy and paste http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM to view the trailer.
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