(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009)

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER (2009)

In this one we have Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who falls in love with this girl Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel) who doesn’t believe that love exists. At first he is fine with them just being “friends”, but apparently after you sleep with someone, like 92.5% of the time (even in the secular world), they want more than friendship. Tom works for a greeting card company but you kind of get the message pretty early on, that Summer would have liked him to go a bit further with his talents.

 Tom counts on the advice of his two best friends, McKenzie and Paul, but should be spending more time listening to his sister Rachel. Rachel is his voice of reason (and is also the smartest person in the entire movie). Rachel is played by Chloe Grace Moretz who has had a string of horrifying role choices lately in her career, but shot this thing when she was just 12 and still getting involved in films that didn’t suck.

Director Marc Webb, is probably best known for directing THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN and THE AMAZING SPIDER-MAN 2, but in this one he decides to shoot everything pretty straight up aside from a few generous flashbacks from Tom, remembering how great Summer was. The storytelling is purposely out of sequence giving the number of the day between 1 and 500, but out of order. We first get a view of the couple’s challenges, then glimpses of the beginning of the relationship, then back again. While this method works well, it also gives away a lot before the movie plays itself out. This isn’t necessarily damaging to the film, but you are watching knowing at least these 2 aren’t going to make it. I don’t want to give away the ending, but I do wish they would have found a way to cram more Rachel in this movie. I spent a lot of time waiting to hear what she had to say about the matter.

This movie does a great job of exploring the human tendency to just focus on what was good about a relationship after it’s over. It explores the person that wanted it to work the most, and then giving us the clear reasons it never panned out for the other person. How the film is viewed probably depends on how your relationships have gone. I think I viewed this movie, as being more an exploration of the psychology of Tom and Summer’s relationship than entertainment. This is not to say the film does not have value. The performances are all amazing and there are some lessons here for those willing to look. It also makes a good conversation piece for couples in any situation. There are also some cool subtle details that are well thought out, even taking it down to the way summer dresses throughout the relationship.

For me this isn’t a film I’d watch more than once every 2 or 3 years, but on merits I think it could possibly get a 4 rating. For me however, personally it’s a 3 out 7.

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