500 Days of Summer /(newly released dvd)

                                                   500 Days of Summer
"Notable Actors"

1. Joseph Gordon- Levitt ( 3rd Rock from the Sun, 10 Things I Hate About You
2. Zooey Deschanel- (The Happening, Yes Man)

 

Genre

•  Romantic comedy

• Drama?

Director

 Marc Webb (first feature film)

 500 Days of  Summer. "This movie is not a love story." Thats what the narrator lets us know right off  the top. Is it a disclaimer? Maybe. If it is, it's a damn good one. But even with something like that as the very first line of the movie I was so not prepared for the roller coaster ride ahead. When it was all over I was hopeing it wasn't a love story because if thats what love is.... I may sit the next one out.

Ok, so 500 Days of Summer is not a love story, we've established that, it is still a story . A story about a boy and girl. The boy is Tom Hanson, a pretty miserable human being, who has a love for architecture yet works at a company that writes greeting cards, (interesting transition right?) He has the same boring life with his job, few close friends and very wise and mature sister, several years younger that he turns to for advice. He essentially feels dead inside and believes, like sleeping beauty, that only his true love can bring him to life, and the very first day he sees Summer he is convinced that she is the one. Thus the first day of  Summer begins. The movie brillaintly goes back and forth between the 500 days and along the way we see where Tom fell in love with Summer (although this isn't a love story). At first things seemed great. Summer "anal girl" Flin blew in from another town because she was bored and started as Tom's  bosses assistant. Summer is a girl that does what she wants when she wants it and wont settle for anything. Unlike Tom she doesn't believe in love because she has never experienced it. Her parents broke up when she was very young and it litterally scarred her for life. 

 

 As Tom got to know Summer he was sincerely amazed by how much they had in common. He had never met someone who was so compatible with him in all his life. He wanted Summer but was too nervous to pull the trigger. Luckily for him, he didnt have to. After a few akward get togethers Tom and Summer shared a few spicy kisses in the copy room and Tom was aboslutely smitten. From that day on they spent all their time together and they appeared to the couple everyone wanted to be! From playing husband and wife in Ikea, to dinner and movie dates, weird museums and shower sex, Tom has never felt more alive. But Summer makes it clear upfront that she not looking for anything serious. Tom decides without hesitation that it's fine and he can do it casual.  But apparently his feelings  for Summer were anything but.

Any sensible person recognizing that Summer's days were numbered, (litterally) would soon discover that whatever was going on between the two wouldn't last forever. Selfishly I wanted it to last. We see Tom at his happiest when he's with Summer. One the highest times for him was even translated into a dance number in the middle of the street complete with plenty of back ups and even an animated bird! Gordon played Tom like he had been him in a past life. His character was so relatable I couldn't help but root for him and hope that in the end he got the girl he wanted. But unfortunately that girl was unattainable, well in a serious sense. As the number of days went 300 and up (post non-relationship break up) Tom is lower than low. Not showing up for work, sleeping for days at a time, living off twinkies and vodka low. This is translated to him walking in a animated black and white scene, and Tom is etched out. Again I cant help but feel his pain, I was litterally depressed on these parts of the film. He loves Summer. Although I can't remember hearing him ever utter the words to her. And she never considered him more than a friend. It really was Tom's fault when it comes to the bare facts. FRom the beginning Summer told Tom  in plain and simple english she didn't want anything serious. But Tom was already in way too deep. He made the mistake most women make. He thought he could change Summer. In a lot of ways he did, slowly but surely she let her guard down with him. Sharing things she never shared with anyone before, letting him into to her world. But the important thing that he never changed was her mind. And my struggle of understanding the complex and cold character Zooey Deschanel was comes in. Tom was fully commited to her 100%. He lived and breathed for Summer and she seemed just as smitten with him. But as the days grew in number she began to pull back from Tom and left him. She just knew that it couldn't go anywhere for her. That they couldn't even end something because it really never started. For this I admire her for being true to her heart and not settling for one second. But I aslo felt dislike for this quirky,  little-too-casual girl. It seemed as if she was just playing with Tom to pass the time, what was bliss for Tom was something she could very easily shrug off and forget, and that makes her seem more cruel and cold than anything.

 

 Tom hopes to get back with Summer even after they had parted ways for many a days (about a hundred).

When they cross paths again he discovers she's engaged! Pretty infuriating, I must say, and heart breaking. He is now forced to move on with his life. He finally gets into architecture, and gets his life back on track, becoming thankful for the people in his life that will always be there.

On the last day of Summer, they run into eachother, its the most touching, sad, maddeing, yet understandable part of the film. Tom asks Summer why it couldn't have been him and she holds nothing back. She knew Tom wasn't the one. So she let him go. She was near tears as she told him goodbye, almost in a regretful way. But we'll never know if she was. Tom now has the closure he needs to move on with life. Summer had given him the tools to move on  to the next step. Like her name Summer was merely a season of Tom's life. And although it took him a long time to recover, she was necessary for him. This wasn't the typical romantic comedy. It was more dark than anything, even the narrator had a eery undertone. Nonetheless 500 Days of Summer was a great movie. Altough a little depressing it showed us all the power of love. It can ruin us, it can make us.  This story may be too real for some hoping for a mushy, and predictable ending. But thats the beauty of 500 Days of Summer. Its unpredicatable, real, passionate and meaningful. It can leave you lifted, or drained. Inspire and enlighten or confuse and depress. 500 Days of Summer truly was a rollercoaster. And it was definitely alot like love. But then again this wasn't a love story. Was it?

Movie Grade

A

Worth Watching?

 hell yea!