(500) Days of Summer

Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt

Director: Marc Webb

Writers: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Summer is not in love with Tom.  

But.

Tom is in love with Summer.  

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

Thus begins (500) Days of Summer a decidedly unconventional romantic comedy, told in non-linear fashion with beautiful splashes of directorial flair.  Some Allen, some Bergman, some Hall & Oates, and a cartoon bird, all fit into making this one of the more original and delightful comedies to be made about love.  It seems almost improbable that a movie about how things went so wrong can remain upbeat.  It delicately balances the sweet, the sour, and the bitter as to not end up melodramatic or depressing.    

The film starts with Summer ending their relationship and we don’t know why; and neither does Tom.  The fact that we know the outcome and are only piecing together the reasons does not make the picture any less intriguing, on the contrary it makes us perk up since we realize this isn’t your off-the-shelf romantic comedy.  Using a fragmented structure with title cards placed throughout, noting the “I’ve known Summer this many days” counter, and an annoying, but mostly useful, narrator, the film feels vibrant and alive.    

Deschanel is painfully adorable while obligatorily being unaware of it.  Listen to how she uses her voice to excentuate not only the humor in a scene but simultaneously confirm her character.  She brings an energy to the screen; a spontaneity that allows every scene she’s in to pop.  Summer is elusive and an enigma; not only to Tom but to us as well.  In most cases we only scratch the surface of her true self and this makes her more intriguing if not less interesting.  Their love maybe held together by nothing more than physical attraction and mutual interests (i.e. The Smiths), as well as some aptly placed dissension (i.e. Ringo Starr), but it still manages to feel authentic.  Authentic; maybe because we want her to be real; the “dream” girl who watches porn and copies it in the bedroom, she sings, she dances, she’s cute as a button, now if only she believed in love.  

Joseph Gordon-Levitt does a great job turning the sulking, slightly delusional Tom into a sympathetic, as well as highly empathetic, person who we all recognize is fighting a losing battle.  I felt horrible for him because he just can’t see how it went array.  Summer is the girl of his fantasies and she’s so close, he just can’t have her.  It’s like she’s slowly fading away, his arms held reaching out to grab her, not realizing he’s slipping off the edge.  He’s pouring out his heart for her and she can’t decide whether to keep it.  He can’t come to grips with the idea of temporary love.  In the end Tom may not be in love with Summer as much as he is with love itself.

(500) Days of Summer is painful in the way it showcases the ups and downs of their relationship.  There are scenes that are shown first in a positive light and then revisited later with context that turns them negative.  We never remember everything in a relationship and usually we employ selective memory.  In the good times we remember why we love.  And in the bad times we obsess over the things we hate; and sometimes they are the same things.  In the heat of the moment we all are capable of doing crazy things, I just wish the film had taken that a little more to heart.  Not that it’s boring just that the ending while remarkably its’ own felt like it held back slightly.

While Summer is intriguing, I wish she weren’t merely an object of affection.  Her personality cannot stand up to her breathtaking allure.  It could be that Tom never loved her for any reason other than that and maybe that is why he can’t understand her choices.  I just wish I did.  While Tom’s crisis’ change, Summer’s remain relatively stagnant; she’s made the choices and now Tom has to deal with them.  Summer hides behind her quirky dresses and shrouded past.  I truly believe Zooey was the only person who could play Summer Finn, the character being little more than a one-dimensional philosophy, relies almost completely on Deschanel’s pitch perfect comic timing and her stunning features.  While she appreciates Tom, his longing for her, and his desperate attempts to solidify their “love”, she just can’t feel the same no matter how hard she tries.  She knows what she wants and she wants it when she wants it; and Tom is no longer on her wishlist.  The film asks you to be Tom but I may have ended up as Summer; I know Tom, I mean the film is dying for me to love it, I’m just not sure we can ever be a couple.  

3.5 out of 4

1. Sara Hayward Says:
   July 23rd, 2009 at 4:29 pm

   Tyler, I agree that this movie was fantastic. It did such a great job of balancing everything, and I especially liked when they would go back to the same scene, but with negative feelings. I thought the references to things like Belle and Sebastian were so well done, and were perfectly chosen for the audience.

   I do have to disagree with you though. I know you love Deschanel, but she plays a flighty, unsympathetic bitch. Summer Finn is extremely attractive, and is very aware of this. She understands that she is good looking and uses this to her advantage. She fools Tom with her good looks just like she fooled you. She is the type of girl that is different just to be different. When asked why she liked Ringo the best, she said that she liked him because no one else did. There was so bases for her favoritism other than she was “unique” in her decision. There is nothing unique, or quirky, or cute about being a cookie cutter individual Summer, nothing.

   I find her to be manipulative. She tells Tom flat out she does not want a relationship, but since he is so in love with her, he acts as though they are a couple. If Summer was opposed to having a relationship, she would have stopped this. She would not have had sex with him, or brought him to IKEA, or done the other coupley things they did. She loved the attention he gave her, and never once thought about his feelings. That was my main issue with her. She cared about no one other than herself. It killed me to watch Tom love this woman, it made me so angry that I almost found the movie hard to watch. I suppose the movie did its job then, really making Tom easy to relate to.

   don’t get me wrong, I loved the movie. I guess there are Summer’s everywhere and it made me sad to see one put on a pedestal. Shame on you, Tom.