Review of (500) Days of Summer (2009) by Siddhartha Y — 20 Sep 2015

More often than not does one come across tasteless romantic comedies mired with mushy meet cutes, cliché cinematics, hackneyed dialogues; all revolving around an unoriginal plot that has been replicated a million times over. And just when you are about to write off all romcoms for good and resort to mindless actions flicks such as the transformers, there comes along a rare gem of a movie that is (500) Days of Summer.

The movie opens with the wry voice of a dispassionate narrator prewarning matter-of-factly that This is NOT a love story. And a love story it is not. It's about Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt)- an average, "isn't unattractive", hopelessly romantic boy who once studied to be an architect but settled for a lowly job at a greeting cards company, meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel)- an attractive, emotionally withdrawn, "the world is my oyster" kind of a girl. Tom is besotted, smitten. Summer, on the other hand, merely interested. And what follows, if chronologically viewed, is the journey of Tom going from the elation of new love; to making desperate attempts at holding on to the girl of his dreams who's way out of his league; to the disparities of a broken heart and finally, to find hope again; and a little about Summer, who in all earnest, admits to Tom at the very onset that she wasn't looking for anything serious, but still ends up being "that bitch" for the entire length of the movie only to redeem herself in the end with one simple line.

But that's not what makes this movie so magical. The greatest strength of this movie would be the exemplary use of a non-linear narrative deftly crafted to juxtapose contrasting aspects of the relationship spectrum and subtly beg a comparison from the audience. The cleverly tailored screenplay by the Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber duo, time-travels in quick oscillations going back and forth day-wise within the brackets of the titular 500 days to exploit various stages of a relationship and how drastically things can change over time.

To wit, how Tom goes from loving her smile, her hair, knees, heart-shaped birthmark on her neck on day 154 to absolutely abhorring her crooked teeth, her 1960's haircut, knobby knees, the cockroach-shaped splotch on her neck on day 322; and essentially, from loving to hating her in the meanwhile.

Or how Summer goes form holding hands with and kissing Tom in IKEA to saying, "That looks doable" after watching a porn and trying shower sex with him to timidly asserting that they are "just friends" after Tom gets into an altercation with someone at the bar trying to defend his male ego.

Although the movie loses its audience for a while towards the end, that does not ruin the overall feel of the movie in a big way.

Director Marc Webb takes all his experience from making music videos over the years and puts it into making this nigh flawless, picture perfect classic complete with split screens, fourth-wall demolitions, a choice of Indie numbers meticulously hand-picked to tell their own tale and even a song/dance number. Both Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are splendid together and seem to share a dreamy chemistry that makes Tom and Summer seem like a natural thing in the beginning of the relationship and let it fizzle out just in time to justify the break-up.

Individually, Gordon-Levitt, yet again, goes to prove what a brilliant actor he is by bringing the house down, making his exult and heartache felt invariably by the audience. And, I dont know if its just me, but he appears to bear a striking resemblance to Heath Ledger, both looks-wise and acting-wise in it, which is a welcome new development. Zooey, on the other hand, with her radiating blue eyes and her offbeat charms, wins Toms heart over as she does ours too.

(500) Days of Summer may not be the best romantic comedy ever made but it does appeal to the romantic in all of us. All I know is that it touched an unknown spot in me that Annie Hall or any other failed to by a mile.