2009. PG-13. 95 minutes.
A lot of you are hating already. I can feel it. Well hear this. Levitt is cool (don’t believe me? ask Chris Nolan), and have you ever LOOKED at Zooey Deschanel??? Well look at her again! She makes my eyes feel nice. This film was a fun time. The End.
Quote: No, but it could have been, in a world where good things happen to me.
500 Days of Summer – Fox Searchlight
So our movie is about Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). They meet on January 8th, and all the trouble begins. He’s romantic and she is NOT. That being said they start dating (but not really). The smiling and the laughing and the stupid everything is puppies and rainbows crap ensues (I was just single and jealous when I saw it for the first time). We see the story of Tom and Summer unfold, mostly in flashbacks, to try and take a look at what went wrong. We jump back and forth throughout their relationship, always seeing the day of 500 that it was in their time together, so we can tell at which point it is. Kinda clever actually.
This movie begins by explaining immediately that it has been inspired by the experiences of one of its film makers, and also that this is not a love story. It’s a breakup movie. A story of survival, and how to get over it. At times it definitely plays as just a lovey-dovey movie, and certainly if a happy couple watches it for date night they will enjoy it just fine, but its not your regular rom com.
Nobody is handing out cinematography awards to the crew or anything, but the camera focuses on little things for effect on occasion. For example, the now bland looking breakfast food in a diner after your girlfriend just broke up with you. That plus some cool artsy things included for dramatic effect here and there. Lots of references to film, music, art and fun side characters portrayed by, at the time, more or less unknowns Chloe Moretz and Geoffrey Arend.
You know all those 50s songs that talk about fools? Those ideas like, I’m a fool for you, I was a fool for her, we were just fools, I was a fool in love and on and on and on? They don’t know why, it doesn’t make sense, everyone else can see what’s happening and there’s no explanation. They are just fools. Ok. Put that on hold a second.
500 Days of Summer is just a simple story. Sure, it has it’s holes and plot devices, it does things we’ve seen before, and will see again, and yes, it’s gotta be said that it steals from many other great old movies while being not quite as good as them. You know what though… I’m just a fool for it.
THE LIST: I’m just a fool for it.
- The soundtrack
Some haters are going to say this was just kinda manufactured and crammed together, but you know what they are hating, and they were going to hate whatever I said about this sappy pappy movie, so what of it.
I like the soundtrack, it’s really diverse and cool. It takes in super famous songs from people like The Smiths and Hall & Oates, and seamlessly puts them minutes apart from songs everyone hadn’t heard yet by people like She & Him (Zooey’s Band) The Black Lips, and The Temper Trap. The music is all great stuff, and it works. I’m a fool for it.
- Tom’s best walk to work ever
Fun scene beginning with that GREAT feeling that one may occasionally wake up with (if one is lucky). Tom knows things are great when he looks in the mirror and seeing a hero of fiction looking back at him, you feel me? Great dance sequence, great choreography, lots of blue shirts, some Gene Kelly type deals, just fun. I’m a fool for it.
3. Tom… is a fool, too.
I’ve once had a friend who lived in NYC. She was “hip” and “on top of things.” Safe to say she was one of the friends who told me when I was being cool, when I was “with it” or when I was”not with it” haha. Whenever we’d discuss movies there was a point where I would say to her, that the (every angsty or hopeless romantic) male lead in the movie was “So me.” She would then proceed to let me know that I say that about every movie. In the back of mind I’m thinking about cool characters like Rob Gordon.
I’m primarily a softy and maybe a little more sensitive and into romance then your average Joe dude. So is Tom. He’s kind of a fool and hence susceptible to heartbreak and stupid decisions from time to time. He works at a job that isn’t his dream job, listens to depresso alternative music like The Smiths, and totally throws himself into the chance of a relationship with Summer. I guess I just pick out the similarities between he and I. Tom is a fool for Summer, and I am a fool for this whole thing maybe. (end of THE LIST)
This film is set in LA, and not for nothing, but it’s nice to see something other then NYC in a movie once in awhile. Tons of movies shot in LA are masked to appear like NYC too, this one didn’t and if memory serves it got a nice response from LA because of that.
Dudes, trust me, when you’re stuck, and HAVE to watch a romantic movie with your lady, leap for this one. You’ll dig it, and they will dig it. It is very much an homage to juggernauts like Annie Hall, or High Fidelity, and with them as a possible guide, it was a nice way to spend an hour and a half.
Just writing this makes me feel like High Fidelity needs a write up, and soon. Oh well, this isn’t about that. It’s about I really liked THIS movie when I first saw it.
