Review of (500) Days of Summer (2009) by Thomas B — 30 Jan 2015

This film is an anomaly. Coming at a time when everyone was tired of rom-coms promising to be something new and exciting, this movie was marketed as a rom-com which was new and exciting! But that's the only way to describe this little gem of a movie. Sure it's not perfect, but it's difficult to find a movie with such a beautiful sense of melancholy, flashes of laugh-out-loud comedy and a emotional ride from highs to lows which actually effect the viewer. .

Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is our not-quite-typical lead. Working at his dead end job as a greeting card writer and half aspiring to be an architect, his routine life is one day interrupted by Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). Tom is immediately enraptured by Summer's stunning looks and intriguing demeanour and decides that he must have her. This is where the film takes a little detour from the schmaltzy beaten track of your run-of-the-mill rom-com. Everything is just a little bit off the normal axis, with endings being presented at the beginning of stories, beginnings taking place at the end and everything else just a little bit out of whack. .

This Pulp Fiction-esque narrative style is one of the film's strongest points. Instead of ridiculous running to airport scenes or appearing in the pouring rain outside the girl's front door, we are told from the very beginning that "This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story." So with the big climax taken out of the equation, the entire film turns into a story about what happens in between the meet-cute and the weepy finish. But wait, there aren't any of those either! Tom and Summer meet boringly at work and the big weepy finish simply doesn't exist. Now you start to get the sense of just how brave director Marc Webb and writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber have been. Each different scene is prefaced by a number, representing days since meeting Summer. Thus the brackets around (500). This is a tricky narrative style to keep up throughout an entire film, but they manage it. Just. Often the film can feel as if they may be on the very, very edge of using the technique as a stunt, but they never quite slip into that territory. Instead, the film is as light and fresh as new love itself, though never afraid to plunge you from joy straight into sadness. .

Another pitfall which many rom-coms fall victim to is a terrible script. Filled with schmaltz and stilted dialogue, they can easily lapse into a slew of cliches, each one less romantic and less comedic than the last, and very rarely actually achieve either of their abbreviated genres. This film, however, is filled with plenty of each. There are moments which will having you rolling around on the floor with laughter and moments which are nothing short of romantic poetry. None of the lines feel forced, each one flowing naturally from each character. This gives the film a realistic feel which is also missing from the main selection of rom-coms available today. It feels as if the characters have been plucked from reality and put onscreen, not the other way around, making the experience of the film all that much more meaningful. .

But it's the acting which is the film's real achievement, particularly from the two leads. Jospeh Gordon-Levitt is an absolute revelation here. He never over-dramatises the sadder scenes which would comprimise the feeling of reality, and he plays the humourous moments with the expertise of a seasoned professional. In fact, the entire film rests on his performance. If he had failed, so would the film. And in such a strange style as this, it would be easy for his performance to be lost in the melee of different days of Summer, but, to the writers and directors credit as much as his own, his performance is fantastically memorable and is one of the reasons that you'll come back for repeat viewings over and over again. His performance also achieves the difficult task of being likeable to both sexes, playing sorrowful and morose, but not to the point that he seems like a the girl in the story. Summer, the actual girl in the story, is played perfectly by Zooey Deschanel. Playing a woman who lives in the moment often means that characters have ridiculous and intrusive trademarks like eating dessert first at dinner. For NO REASON! Anyway, Zooey is fantastic, playing Summer with fantastic restraint and none of the over-the-top melodrama that usually accompanies such performances. She makes it difficult for the viewer to figure out whether she's the devil or just misunderstood, or whether it's Tom's fault that she keeps slipping away. .

But the film is about two things really: the innovative style and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. These two aspects of the film work together brilliantly to create a melancholy piece with fantastic humour and bittersweet romance which can leave you perplexed, upset, happy and sad all at the same time. And yes, the ending may make you hurl, but if you can look past that, you've got a truly fantastic film which will stand and benefit from repeat viewings, which is really the only option after watching it once. .

Defining Scene: .

Expectations vs. Reality. Incredibly innovative and pure genius.