(500) Days of Summer is not a love story. It’s a well-told, well-acted story about two people being not quite right for each other. Neither person is mean or in the wrong, either, and there are no villains or people to hate or people to blame. As with many relationships, this movie describes and explores one that doesn’t quite work out as well as the participants (or maybe participant in the singular) wish it would.
I’ve heard Marc Webb’s picture compared to Love Actually, but there’s little right about such a comparison. (500) Days of Summer is, again, not about love. It’s about wanting love with a certain person, about wishing you were with the right guy or girl, and about hoping to eventually find the right guy or girl once you’ve come to terms with the chasm between expectation and reality.
Using a non-linear but easy-to-follow narrative, (500) Days of Summer tells us the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). Tom is a greeting card writing (my dream job) and Summer is a new assistant at the place he works. He is instantly smitten by her, deeming himself to have fallen in love with the girl. She has a different outlook, however, and feels an attraction but refuses to name it.
For 500 days or so, Tom obsesses in various forms over Summer. Their relationship weaves around, going through various stages of success and unrest with Tom hanging on to his best intentions for dear life. Webb illustrates this beautifully using a variety of motifs to express how Tom is feeling, playing with a lively and hilarious dance number and interjecting Tom into an old, sad movie. In the end, we feel we’ve witnessed a meaningful 500 days in the life of Tom and Summer and we feel we’ve witnessed real progression.
(500) Days of Summer works because it keeps itself honest and because it never slips off the precipice into pretentious territory. There are plenty of opportunities for pretension, of course, but Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt avoid it by keeping their performances fresh. There’s no winking or nudging at the camera with regards to how smart they are, as characters in a Diablo Cody flick might do, and there’s no ducking for cover during some of the mushier moments.
Gordon-Levitt, who is one of today’s top talents in my opinion, gives us a character fixated on love and fixated on Summer to an extraordinary degree. He is an absolutely likable person and we want to see him have romantic success, but sooner or later we come to terms with the fact that what he envisions for himself may not actually be what’s best.
Deschanel, also one of today’s best performers, is delightful as Summer. Her character, too, is given a foundation that we can understand as a film audience. There are reasons to her actions and reactions; there are purposes to her impulsions and to her ideas about love and life. We are able to respect her and enjoy her presence without feeling guilty for what’s not to be.
Overall, (500) Days of Summer is one of the best pictures of 2009. It is emotionally honest without being demanding, scoring points from the realism of the performances and the dialogue. With slick, honest writing from Scott Neustadter and some beautiful cinematography, Webb’s cinematic debut is an enjoyable treat in every sense of it. It is like falling in love with the movies all over again.
9.4/10
Trailer:
