500 Days of Summer - Review

 500 Days of summer is a 2009 independent film directed by ‘The Amazing Spider Man’ director Marc Webb. The film was financed independently and distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures. This movie stars Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt in lead performances. Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a man who is trained as an architect, and yet who works at a greetings card company. Deschanel plays summer, a woman who works as an assistant at the same company, and with whom Tom falls hopelessly in love. The film uses a non-linear narrative, with every scene being preceded by a title card showing the day. The film details the 500 day long relationship between the two main characters, and shows how tom falls in love with Summer, and how she breaks his heart.

The film is clearly presented from Tom’s point of view. Summer, as stated in the early part of the movie, is a perfectly average woman, of average height, weight and beauty, and it may seem to the audience a complete mystery, why Tom is so infatuated with her. Summer is an immature woman, a woman who fails to realize the affect she has on men. Summer believes her and Toms relationship to be a small fling, and tells Tom that she doesn’t believe in true love, or want a boyfriend. This juxtaposition is interesting, their relationship is not the absolute overwhelming love affair that Tom feels it to be, however when watching the film, the audience is so taken in by Tom’s emotion and sheer overwhelming grief, that they, like Tom, abandon reason, and become consumed with heartbreak, and often it is only upon analysis that one realizes that their relationship was little more than a fling.

Interestingly their different perspectives about the status of their relationship, and their opinions about love and relationships change as the story progresses. Tom realizes that all he though he knew about love, and fate was all bullshit, and that love at first sight really was just a myth. Summer on the other hand, believes in all this; at the beginning of the film she describes how she thinks love is a fantasy made up by people who want to believe. At the end of the film, she talks passionately about fate, and how if she had not followed her exact path that day, she would never have met her soulmate. She becomes a doe eyed optimist, where Tom becomes a pessimistic realist. Interestingly despite their relationship being only a small fling, it changes each of them a huge amount.

What I really really love about this film is the fact that it bridges the gap between mainstream rom-com, and arthouse independent movie, the film uses a non-linear narrative and title cards in an unconventional way. The film on two occasions uses a split screen to dramatic and emotional effect. The split screen shows on one half; expectation, and the other half reality. The expectation shows Tom and Summer making up, Tom laughing with a group of fun people, and making up with Summer, the reality is that he drinks vodka alone watching everyone else have a good time, this technique is employed twice in the film, and essentially shows how Toms expectations far outmatch what is probable or even possible. He expects far too much of summer, and even though she tells him that she does not want a relationship, he expects her to fall hopelessly in love and to believe in all the things that he does, the paradox is that she ends up believing in true love after all, just as he loses faith in all which he used to believe.

The cinema is also used in the film. Tom and Summer see The Graduate, which Tom believes to be the greatest celebration of true love, and Summer breaks up with him directly afterwards. Tom imagines himself to be an actor in an avant garde film, and various characters are shown in a grainy black and white filter talking about love and hopelessness. These show how Tom imagines himelf to be watching a movie about his life, and how his grief is so strong, that it is creating an experience akin to an out of body experience. The part in which he sees himself as an actor in a movie shows how he has a need to experience his depression in a way other than internally, in order to rationalize and deal with it.

The ending of this film is beautiful and heartwarming, Tom meets an attractive woman at a job interview, he asks the woman out for a drink, the woman agrees, telling tom that her name is Autumn, Tom breaks the fourth wall and gives the audience a knowing look. Finally there is a title card, with the number one. Summer is over and autumn can begin.

Overall I really like this film, it is well executed and fun. I don’t particularly like comedy movies, but this is one of the best I’ve ever seen, being fun and heartwarming, and asking some pointed questions about love, fate and destiny. The film is well acted and both the films leads are likeable and real. This is a great movie, and won’t fail to make even the most cynical person (like myself) smile. Rating:A-

Narrator: Tom walked to her apartment, intoxicated by the promise of the evening. He believed that this time his expectations would align with reality...