Review of (500) Days of Summer (2009) by Vann V — 23 Aug 2012

Rarely is a romantic comedy this inventive. Most romantic comedies at this day and age follows a standard formula: a person (either sex) becomes infatuated with another person, faces challenges in getting the two of them to become a couple, they have a large amount of sex, and then they end up a couple with the future relatively certain.

The movie, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, follows the first step at least. Tom Hansen, played by Gordon-Levitt, is infatuated with his co-worker Summer Finn, played by Deschanel. The two are virtually pitch perfect in their roles. Gordon-Levitt perfectly captures the sense that Tom has too many assumptions of how their relationship should be described. He supposes that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, regardless of what Summer says it is. Deschanel on the other hand is naturally infectious; channeling the same kind of energy that she uses in every role. Her awkward, quirky charm works perfectly for the tune of this movie.

The movie also follows the second step, however it takes a different approach. While in most of these movies, these breakups or issues are dependent with some factor that pulls them apart. Perhaps it could be cheating, or just plain romantic friction. In this film however, the two don't have any romantic friction and there is naught a factor that would make sense as a tool to break-up, at least in the conventional sense. This movie makes use of how the dynamics of the relationships can pull each other apart. It shows how undefined relationships tend to go down the drain when you try to define them at too late a point. Next would be sex, however this movie contains little sexual insights. It was an excellent decision to do so, the movie was able to remain consistent about its central theme.

The last step is this; they end up, everyone is happy, and the future will certainly be bright. Before the movie begins, Tom describes how it is not a love story. If how a love story goes is that the couple fall in love and ends as such, then it is certainly not a love story. I prefer to think of it as a story about love, rather than a love story. The movie ends in neither a high nor a low note, it seems more like middle ground. The ending is a clean slate; a beginning for another story. Unfortunately for Tom, you can't begin on a clean slate without wiping off the slate first.

The movie is told in non-chronological order. In most movies, each event significant to the plot follows one another. This movie does not merely use a non-linear narrative in order to make itself distinct, I fully believe that it is essential to the movie and was an artistic choice. The fact that it is told in a non-chronological order allows us to go into how the narrator, Tom himself, feels. In the movie, he begins with the best aspects, follows with the worst aspects, then ends with the dissolve. It's how we tend to remember the best and save the worst for last. The narration is human. We also see how the film treats the actual day of the events are irrelevant. Why should we care which day it is? What happens, happens. I believe the idea to present the days was a clever decision, it even further highlights the irrelevance of the chronology.