Movie Review: (500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer
(500) Days of Summer is a charming, light-weight, quirky, creative, romantic non-love story.

(500) Days of Summer stars Joseph-Gordon-Levitt (once of 3rd Rock from the Sun, which I never watched, and lately apparently a rising star in a quirky collection of largely independent movies, none of which I have seen) as Tom Hansen, an aspiring architect turned greeting card writer, and Zooey Deschanel as the Summer of the title. On the face of it, (500) Days of Summer is yet another boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy and girl run into inevitable relationship trouble movie. It plays fast and loose with the structure of the typical rom-com though, and in the end plays fast and loose with the rom-com finale structure as well.

I love the way the story is presented. It is told non-linearly, and the parentheses in the title reflect interstitials in the movie that tell us what day we are looking at in the 500 day relationship between Tom and Summer. Along the way we get fantasy musical sequences, split screen takes on alternate realities, and various pop culture references that show us what Tom is thinking and feeling. I thought the direction worked very well for the story. Having just seen The Hurt Locker and now seeing the praise heaped upon the direction of that movie (which I did not care for), I would prefer to see some love directed toward director Marc Webb for this movie. While (500) Days of Summer is not a heavy ponderous drama like those preferred by the film Academy, I though the direction was particularly apt, creative and effective.

On a side note, my fourteen year old son declined to watch because, he said, “I've never seen a funny romantic comedy.” So we've been trying to think of some funny romantic comedies he might like. So far, I have Roxanne, When Harry Met Sally, You've Got Mail, Play It Again, Sam and Groundhog Dog.