Movie Notes: 500 Days Of Summer

August 1st, 2009

= 5 stars

Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend
Directed by Marc Webb

Synopsis

Over 500 days, twenty-something greeting card writer Tom (Joeseph Gordon-Levitt) falls in love with co-worker Summer (Zooey Deschanel) — and then falls apart.

The Good

• Chemistry between real-life friends Gordon-Levitt (who recently, really impressed me in Brick) and Deschanel (I’d say this is her best since Elf). It’s a tour-de-fource for Gordon-Levitt who runs a gamut of emotions, even tossing in some song and dance (yes, so does Deschanel).
• Abrupt jumps during the 500 days, diffusing the standard question “will they get back together?” because we know from the start Tom and Summer won’t. With that out of the way, more thought is put into the why and how. The leaping about eventually becomes a statement on shifting memories as relationships rise and fall — how we remember. Near film’s end, we’re shown a few early, down moments, and it’s realized that up until that point, we saw only the “good parts” — Tom’s version of events. It’s clear Summer decided they weren’t right for each other, during small, subtle cracks of incompatibility: a record cover, a different reaction to a movie, a desire to be alone.
• Piles of quirky, funny moments, most due to a gender reversal where Tom is the sappy believer in true love and destiny, while Summer is aloof and non-committal (similar to Notting Hill and High Fidelity). Instead of Judy Greer, Tom’s support system is made of two guys who look like Steve Buscemi and Curtis Armstrong.
• Recalls Annie Hall (beyond the failed relationship) in its use of varied film techniques: the aforementioned time-jumping, animated sequences, and Tom drifting into a Bergman parody. Most cool is a split-screen of a party where Tom’s fantasy evening appears on the left while the bleak reality plays out on the right. Another cool moment is the exact same visuals of Summer and a particular song that Tom both loves and hates at different stages in their relationship.
• A peculiar string of odd elements that seemed tailor made to my personal disposition (coincidences?): The Smiths, Belle and Sebastian, that Hall and Oates song, Ringo is not the best Beatle, Han Solo, the Blade Runner building, similarity to Annie Hall, Bergman parodies, and the ending to The Graduate, which is a personal litmus test to your naive belief in true love — whether Ben’s thought to run away with Elaine is romantic, or pure folly. I’ve always found the ending to be rather sad — just like Summer.
• Makes Los Angeles look like a cool, hip place, largely through a focus on old architecture, one of Tom’s interests.

The Bad

• Cheesy ending — do not want 500 Days Of Autumn. Thankfully, credits roll seconds after.
• Tom and Summer’s relationship is superficially based on similar musical tastes, a mockery of IKEA, and being “interesting” — but hey, we were all twenty-something once.

Conclusion

An honest, touching, well-acted analysis of a failed relationship where the two broken halves emerge into separate wholes. It’s one of those rare films that feels tailor-made, uncannily seeming to read my mind as it played out on screen, but more likely it’s because the feelings of both falling in love and apart are universal. This gem is why I watch movies.

IMDB: 500 Days Of Summer
Wikipedia: 500 Days Of Summer
Rotten Tomatoes: 500 Days Of Summer