500 Days of Summer Review

500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer is an 2009 American comedy with a tinge of romance-drama film produced in 2009; written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, directed by Marc Webb, produced by Mark Waters, and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. The film is not the typical love story we used to watch, but it interestingly employs a nonlinear narrative structure that brings a whole new genre of film, with the story based upon its male protagonist and his memories of a failed relationship; going through a state of bliss of love to getting over a lovelorn that represents the modern love in the generation nowadays.

Short summary:

“Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. This postmodern love story is never what we expect it to be — it’s thorny yet exhilarating, funny and sad, a twisted journey of highs and lows that doesn’t quite go where we think it will. When Tom, a hapless greeting card copywriter and hopeless romantic, is blindsided after his girlfriend, Summer dumps him, he shifts back and forth through various periods of their 500 days “together” to try to figure out where things went wrong. His reflections ultimately lead him to finally rediscover his true passions in life.”

What makes 500 Days of Summer so distinctive is its indirect mocking of convention and its charmingly heartfelt story presented in a way that’s both breezy and innovative with several unique creative touches.

It’s a fractured tale in which events unfold from the perspective of the male leading role, Tom. The film warns us early that “this is not a love story.” The action switches back and forth over the time Tom and Summer are together, in a clever structure dictated by events rather than linear storytelling.

We never remember in chronological order, especially when we are going back over a failed romance. We start near the end, and then hop around between the times that were good and the times that left pain. People always say “start at the beginning,” but we didn’t know at the time it was the beginning. “500 Days of Summer” charmingly works that way.

Some say they’re annoyed by the way it begins on Day 488 or then jumps around, providing utterly confusion to the movie. But this film is trying to tell that Tom remembers his love, Summer, as a series of joys and bafflements.

Generally, in romance films, we believe what we want to believe, which most of the typical films will bring about a lot of unreal romance to touch the watchers’ heart. That’s the reason why “500 Days of Summer” is so appealing. Tom is in love with Summer from the moment he sees her. On the other hand, Summer sees Tom with a level gaze and is who she is. It’s Tom’s bad luck she is sweet and smart and beautiful — it’s not an act. She is always scrupulously honest with him. She is her own person, and Tom can’t have her.

One of the highlights is a send-up of musical montages that takes place after Tom and Summer’s first amorous night. Tom’s contented strut becomes a Singin’ in the Rain-style dance number to the tune of Hall & Oates’ peppy You Make My Dreams. Strangers, and even an animated bluebird, join in Tom’s celebration.

This woman simply likes him for now, but not for forever. The movie, which is a delightful comedy, alive with invention, is about Tom wrestling with that reality. He loves her for life, and thinks that she could be the one to be his wife. The feeling when he had lost her. The director Marc Webb has been playfully casting about for templates from some classic movies to help him tell this story; simply charming. There’s a little black and white, a little musical number, a little Fellini, which is always helpful in evoking a man in the act of yearning. Tom spends this movie in the emotional quandary of Mastroianni in “La Dolce Vita,” his hand always outstretched toward his inaccessible fantasies.

Summer remains mysterious all through the film, perhaps because we persist with Tom in expecting her to cave in. When we realize she is not required to in this movie, because it’s not playing by the rules of typical romance films, that is what surprises us in this movie. The time structure truly is something new that brings about a new concept freedom of romantic confusion.

Very creative scenes when Tom was invited to a party whom the girl invited him to; he tried to win her back. And this scene has a clever split-screen segment, with half of the screen devoted to “Reality” and the other to “Expectation”, which often happens in real life and mounts an earnest awe to the watchers at the same time.

Towards the ending, says Tom has finally come to realize that “it was that you can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that’s all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence. There are no miracles. There’s no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be. He knew, he was sure of it now”. And this scene is where he meets Autumn, right after Summer.

Endearing, fresh and funny, 500 Days of Summer offers insights about fate, attraction, infatuation, heartbreak and the perseverance of hope simply in running time of 97 minutes.

Awards:

Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber received numerous awards for their screenplay; including the 2009 Hollywood Film Festival’s Hollywood Breakthrough Screenwriter Award on October 26, 2009, the Satellite Award for Best Original Screenplay, the Southeastern Film Critics Association Award for Best Original Screenplay (with the film also being named in the Top Ten Films of the Year), as well as the Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Screenplay.

Alan Edward Bell won the San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing, as well as the film being named one of the ten best movies of the year by the National Board of Review Awards 2009. The film also received two nominations at the 67th Golden Globe Awards announced on December 15, 2009, for Best Picture (Comedy or Musical) and for Joseph Gordon-Levitt for Best Actor (Comedy or Musical). It has been nominated for four Independent Spirit Awards and won the award for Best Screenplay. It received a nomination for the People’s Choice Award.

This scene shows how hurt he was when she left