Review of (500) Days of Summer (2009) by Anssi V — 13 Jan 2014

"This is not a love story. This is a story about love.".

That is the slogan for the film and it's very accurate. (500) Days of Summer is not a typical romantic comedy in that you can pretty much predict how it's going to end from the very first minute. It's cleverer than that, always keeping you guessing and not revealing its cards until it absolute has to. It would have been easy for this film to fall into a confusing mess and to be unbearable to watch because it tried to be too clever and unconventional. Luckily the writing here is razor sharp and director Marc Webb keeps the film admirably on course even when the plot jumps uncontrollably from one place or scene to another. But this jumping has a strategy behind it, and this is one of those non-chronological films where it doesn't feel convoluted or unnecessary to watch the scenes in the "wrong" order.

Huge props should also go the leading actor and actress. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays a great everyman, a guy who has lost his way in life and is content just to go on, living his days one at a time. And then a woman walks into his life and what a woman Zooey Deschanel plays. She is perfect for this film's needs, naturally playing a girl that's charming and quirky enough that it's almost too easy to fall for her at first sight, yet you get the idea that she wouldn't be that good of a wife if you were to marry her.

I also rather like the art style for this film. The director takes time to conduct small experiments with certain scenes, like he's still trying to find his own niche, and while this would usually make the film seem way too artsy, it works here, because there's still an undercurrent of effort. Different experiments feel like they have been thought through and instead of stealing focus away from the main storyline and the movie as a whole, they add to it. Very nice looking piece of film making in general.

(500) Days of Summer is a film I'd recommend to anyone, who doesn't exactly like romantic comedies, but wants to give them a shot. It's quirky and unique enough that you won't get bored even if you think you've already seen all there's to see, yet it remains true to its genre enough that you get what you came looking for.