(500) Days of Summer

Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer is a light and fluffy summer comedy with a little bit of a dark edge underneath. This is clear right after the studio logo fades, and we get a brief personal message from the filmmaker, which states the movie is not based on any real events or people, then goes on to call out and insult a former lover by name. The movie does seem to certainly be inspired by real experiences. The feelings of love and loss that the main character, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), goes through are too honest not to be. With Hollywood seemingly churning out the same romantic comedies over and over, here's one that gets it mostly right.

Tom is a young man who aspires to be an architect, but like so many of us, has become settled in a lesser job that obviously doesn't interest him. He writes greeting cards, and although his boss constantly praises his work, he feels unfulfilled. An off camera narrator informs us that Tom feels he won't be truly happy until he finds the woman he's destined to spend his life with. He picked up this belief early on after listening to too many British pop songs growing up. He believes he's found his fated girlfriend when Summer (Zooey Deschanel) arrives at his job as his boss' new assistant. She seems hard to read as a person at first, and he gets conflicting reports as to what she's like from his friends at work. But then, they share an elevator together, and he learns that they share the same taste in music. This is enough for Tom to build a friendship with Summer, one that seems to be building to something more as the days go on.

Most romantic comedies would take this premise, and put the characters through the cliched ringer, but screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber (whose previous credit was The Pink Panther 2, clearly a project they did not have their hearts in) make the characters and the script itself a little bit smarter than we expect. What happens if one person is in love more than the other? What if they're looking for different things in the same relationship? It's something that happens everyday in real life, but seldom happens in movies. Tom clearly thinks Summer is "the one", and that he is destined to spend his life with her. Summer, however, doesn't believe in true love. At least that's what she says when they first sit down and talk to each other in a bar. But, there's an obvious connection. Their relationship grows stronger and becomes intimate, and at least to Tom, everything seems perfect. But there are little signs that Summer does not see things the same way he does. Tom doesn't see the signs, and at first, neither do we. But they become more telling as the movie goes on.

Tom and Summer are two of the most honest and likable leads I've come across in a romantic comedy in a while. They are real people. We identify with them in just about every way. We understand Tom's elation when the relationship seems to be getting more intimate, and we feel his loss when he begins to realize he's been ignoring so much for so long, and that Summer never once saw things the same way he did. The movie never once hits a false note during their scenes together. What I loved about the relationship is how the movie shows them doing everyday things - Going to movies, shopping at IKEA, visiting music stores - Things we seldom see characters do in films, unless the scene is important to the plot, or there's some dramatic revelation. Their relationship is never once contrived, and feels like it was built on memories instead of cliches. Likewise, the performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are very realistic. It doesn't sound like they're reciting scripted dialogue. Even their final scene together (a poignant and sad, yet somewhat uplifting, scene in a park) is free of the usual Hollywood drama, and feels like two genuine people who have gone through a lot together in the past year or so, and are a little bit smarter about each other.

It's a good thing that (500) Days of Summer focuses so much on their relationship, because there are some moments outside of the lead characters that don't seem to have been given much attention. The movie is told out of sequence, which doesn't really add much to the story. It fortunately doesn't get too confusing, it just didn't seem necessary. There's also a song and dance sequence to show Tom's joy over his relationship with Summer that seems out of place with the rest of the movie, since it's so over the top in its fantasy. Tom starts strutting down the street to "You Make My Dreams (Come True)" by Hall and Oates, and soon, the entire neighborhood is dancing along with him, complete with a marching band and animated Disney bluebirds fluttering about. I understand what the scene was trying to express, but it goes on long after we get the point and the joke. The characters outside of Tom and Summer also don't seem to have been given as much thought or attention. Tom's boss often comes across as being clueless, such as when he sees his employee is depressed over his relationship troubles, so he decides to put Tom on writing sympathy cards. Tom also has two best friends (Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler), who seem like they wandered into the movie from a failed sitcom pilot. Same goes for the wise preteen girl (Chloe Grace Moretz), who Tom is constantly seeking dating advice from, but never develops or comes across as an actual character in the story.

(500) Days of Summer gets everything so right with the lead characters, it's a shame that the movie surrounding them isn't as strong. I almost wish the screenwriters had just dumped everything and everyone else, and just focused on Tom and Summer. They make the movie worth seeing. On my way home, I found myself wondering what happened to them after the movie ended. It's not that I wanted to see them in a sequel, it's just I started thinking about where I think they would have gone after the end credits rolled. How many times have you done that at the end of a movie?

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