(500) Days of Summer
Every once in a while there comes along a meaningful film that makes you think, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Garden State are such examples. Earlier in the summer there was Away We Go come close, but (500) Days of Summer is the film that I related to the most. (500) Days of Summer – if you can do the math, you know it’s not possible, so Summer here is not the season, but a character. Let me quote the narrator straight from the film: “It is a story of boy meets girl. The boy grew up believing that he would never truly be happy ’til the day he met the one, the girl, did not share this belief. And you should know upfront, this is not a love story.” The movie is about a boy named Tom and a girl named Summer. It is a story about meeting the one who you think is THE ONE, but turn out it’s not~
What it is, is a sentimental comedy about romance and relationship, but it’s not your standard romantic comedy in the lines of The Proposal, the 27 Dresses, or the countless so called Chick Flicks before it, nor is it the new type of R rated rom-com that emphasized on the R (for raunchy) for the male audience – like the Knocked Up. It is instead a coming of age story similar to Garden State, except that in Garden State, romance is just a side element, for 500 Days, it’s front and center. In addition, first time director Marc Webb told the story using the time-shifted non-linear order from the perspective of Tom. As the narrator stated up front, this isn’t a love story, you already know from the beginning that these two are not gonna work out. Therefore, what’s interesting to the audience is not the question of what will happen? but how did it come to this? In most films, because Hollywood has become so formulaic that we all can guess what happen next or how the story ends, by taking that out of the equation, it make the film much more refreshing.
It’s a no-brainer that I identified with the character Tom, that I believe in the same hopelessly romantic crap that Tom believes in all his life. All those things about soul mates, coincidences, etc etc. None of it matters if that other person doesn’t feel the same! And I am definitely the one that mope around pathetically just like Tom after realizing the one is really just not the one~ This film is full of tibits that burst all the bubbles and lies the sad British pop music, movies and greeting card companies have you believed, like “just because someone likes the same thing that another person likes, it doesn’t mean that they’re your soul mate.” or “coincidence is just coincidence.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschannel are the perfect choice for the roles. They might not be the so-called A-List nor are they the go to choices for Rom-Coms. But you can’t help but adore these two. They made their characters believable. When it comes to a girl who is a little bit spacey and quirky, there’s no better choice than Zooey! Joseph might still be best known as that alien kid from Third Rock from the Sun, but his indie film resume from Mysterious Skins to Brick to the Lookout showcased that he’s a fantastic actor that has yet to be discovered by the mainstream. He definitely pull out all the stops in this film with the ups and the downs and a karaoke performance to an awesome dance sequence completed with animated bird!
Other things I wanted to point out about the film: the symbolism of Tom’s career choice: copywriter of a greeting card company to being an architect; the landscape of LA that I never seen before, seriously, I can’t believe it’s LA~ Soundtrack – mix in some great ones from the 80s like the Smiths to Simon & Garfunkel to the Hall & Oates, with modern days indie darlings Regina Spektor and Feist, how can I not like it? And the last but not the least, the many styles Webb used in the film: documentary, musical, fade to pencil drawing, split-screen of expectation and reality, and of course the already mentioned time-shifted out of sequence narrative.
There are just so much I can take from this film, but what stuck in my head, and what gets me after watching it are the following string of words:
heartbreak, architect, the one, not the one, saying one thing but acting another…
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