500 Days Of Summer

[BobbyD 2]

I just caught this film...and I really enjoyed it. That makes 2 films of the summer that I liked. That's rough, since I usually hate everything. :4biggrin:

 

It probably could've been a little shorter. But it was definitely funny and worth checking out. Joseph Gordon-Leavitt has come a long way since 3rd Rock From The Sun. I liked him in The Lookout.

[BobbyD 2]

500 Days of Summer: Innovative, Touching, but Hardly Earth-Shaking

August 2, 5:05 PM

 

Not a love story, but a story about love, as the ads say. Any indie film that does well at Sundance usually garners plenty of buzz before it hits theatres. Plus, respectable young actors like Zooey Deschanel (seen in the blockbuster sci-fi hit The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (the child star from Third Rock from the Sun, who's since been doing plenty of much-admired film work, including the controversial indie film by Gregg Araki, Mysterious Skin) draw in audiences, too. Director Marc Webb is a relative newcomer, but his sensitive direction, coupled with the innovative screenplay by Scot Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, make him a talent to keep an eye on.

 

Gordon-Levitt plays Tom Hansen, a sweet young man who works for a greeting card company in Los Angeles. Deschanel is Summer Finn, a recent transplant from the Midwest who starts a job as Tom's boss's assistant. Tom instantly develops a crush on Summer and they start dating. But this isn't your typical story of young love. For starters, it's not told in chronological order, or even, in the way of other temporally-challenged films like Christopher Nolan's Memento or Harold Pinter's Betrayal, told backwards. The "500 Days' of the title are presented completely out of order, but certainly not randomly. The sad post-break-up days of the late 300's are contrasted immediately with the flush of infatuation in the early 30's. Tom is a closet romantic who wants a real relationship; Summer wants to keep things casual but keeps helplessly laying on the charm, which makes her "let's be friends" mantra all the more infuriating for Tom and for us.

 

Maybe I wasn't in the mood for a thoughtful meditation on infatuation, love, commitment and romance. Maybe I identified far more with Tom than I did with Summer and this vaguely troubled me. Maybe I was just feeling a cynical "oh gee I'm old" touch of the jealous, towards the freewheeling lives of two twenty-somethings with the word in front of them in an exciting city full of possibilities. But this film, carefully crafted to make us think about relationships, especially those really significant, unforgettable, unreconcilable relationships many of us have had, just didn't rock my world as hard as it might have. The actors are fine, helped along by supporting players like Matthew Gray Gubler of the TV show Criminal Minds and American Dreams' Rachel Boston. The visuals are artful and complex, especially the great color structure that shades Tom's world in ambers and browns and Summer's in blues. And the time-shuffle narrative feels innovative and clever. But given the occasional moments of dreamy magic (like when Tom sees the world as a song and dance number populated by smiling men and women dressed in a hundred variations on Summer's sweet blue frock) and hard-hitting life lessons, I wanted more. But this enjoyable film is well worth seeing, and, on a good day, probably one of the better films about love in recent memory.

[BobbyD 2]

[bittermuch? 0]

Saw it Saturday night and really liked it. Totally met my expectations. JGL has grown up nicely.

[galaxygirl 0]

I would love to see it, but it's not playing in my area, which bums me out.

[virginia4 0]

Am hoping hubby will take me to see this this weekend.

[borski277 0]

Thought it was fantastic. Very realistic attitude towards relationships and everything, and a great soundtrack to boot!

[e-lin 1]

to Virgina 4... why do you have to wait for hubby to take you? Do you not drive or capble of taking a bus, cab ot other public transportation?? You can always go by yourself or with a friend or relative.

[virginia4 0]

to Virgina 4... why do you have to wait for hubby to take you? Do you not drive or capble of taking a bus, cab ot other public transportation?? You can always go by yourself or with a friend or relative.

True but this is payback for me going to see Star Trek with him. After all, what is the point in being married if you can't make each other miserable, am I right?

[annabeast 24]

to Virgina 4... why do you have to wait for hubby to take you? Do you not drive or capble of taking a bus, cab ot other public transportation?? You can always go by yourself or with a friend or relative.

True but this is payback for me going to see Star Trek with him. After all, what is the point in being married if you can't make each other miserable, am I right?

 

LOLOLOL!

[annabeast 24]

Finally saw this, and had that "too much hype" letdown. I was annoyed by the Summer character, because the quirky, "carefree", vintage-clothes-wearing girl thing has been done so many times (Winona Ryder perfected it). But the final scene on the bench was so well done... who hasn't had that talk? And I noted later that her wardrobe, in that scene, subtly reflected the change in her: she was actually wearing grown up clothes.

[michellelbc 0]

Finally saw this movie after hearing a lot of good things about it and it was actually good. Felt bad for the guy because he didn't get Summer but liked how it was a different ending to most romantic movies. Think it might have been a little over hyped from the media bit over all I give it a A-/B+

[KikiTopaz 34]

My daughters recommended this movie to me, they really liked it. I came home from work last week and was hit with a severe case of the blues. (My dog was put down a few weeks ago and coming home to an empty house sucks. Mr. Topaz was working late that night.) I really liked the way the timeline was portrayed and found the actors to be interesting, enough so, as to keep on watching when I should have been making dinner. Not giving away the ending, I will suffice it to say that I enjoyed this movie more than I thought I would.