500 Days of Summer
Director: Marc Webb
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
I knew after the first time I saw the trailer that this would be my kind of movie. It looked like it had that quirky indie-comedy feel with some real emotion and romance. All that with two of the most charismatic young actors working today and some awesomely surreal imagery. Well, turns out I was right! This is a "Pete and Kaylen" movie.
The narrator warned us that this was not a love story. I'm not sure I agree, but whatever. Tom is a young man with a job he hates (greeting cards), but aspirations to greater things (architect). He is a hopeless romantic when he meets Summer. The movie tracks the 500 days during which he is infatuated with this girl. Through good times and bad, she leaves him a cynical, sad man. Ok, maybe this isn't a love story.
The two lead actors here are perfect. I've had a little fanboy crush on Zooey Deschanel for a long time, which made her (pretty standard) dream girl character work for me. She was cute, difficult, and real. I don't know why Joseph Gordon-Levitt is not a super star. After seeing his amazing performance in Brick, I knew this guy was a great actor. He is an increcibly loveable everyman here, and I can't help but to identify with him and root for things to go his way.
The cool thing here is that we get to see an entire relationship they way someone remembers it, not how it really is. Marc takes us through their time together in a non-chronological zig-zag way. This makes certain scenes his harder and leaves gaps where things are forgotten (sometimes willingly). A lot of this is sad, but some is very funny. There is a particular scene in which Tom is very depressed and goes into a convenience store to buy essentials (OJ, Jack Daniels, and Twinkies). I was giggling uncontrollably the whole time.
The best thing about the movie is that the emotions are real. Tom experiences feelings of love and depression in extremes. He goes from dancing in the streets to cursing strangers for holding hands. Everything about his emotions are so steryotypical, but this only makes it that much more relateable to everyone watching. Summer is the kind of girl we all know, someone who is fun, but completely infuriating at the same time. I'm not sure how I feel about her as a person...this will take more viewings.
This movie will get knocked for being too "quirky", "hipster", and "cute". Backlash will come along with overhype. The same thing happened with Juno, a movie I loved because I ignored all that. This is better than all that. It is a real, hilarious, romantic movie that I'll revisit over and over again in the future.
PS- The soundtrack is rad.
Lesson learned: Girls aren't always impressed when you try to defend their honor by punching a guy.
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