500 Days of Summer [M]

This is a story of boy meets girl. Indeed a boy named Tom meets a girl named Summer. Tom falls in love with Summer from the first moment and they begin seeing each other socially. Tom believes that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, their relationship seems to fall under that label, but Summer is indifferent the whole the label game and, to her, they are just friends. Summer’s instability with the relationship status begins to confuse and annoy Tom and they break up. And then they meet again. And then they part. And Tom mopes around. And then they meet again… This is not a love story, but it is a story about love. 

I’ve seen this movie once before and I remember really liking it. The second time around, not so much. For me, this movie is one that has to be forever new. You can’t watch it multiple times really because it defeats the purpose knowing what is going to happen. It’s a very nice and lovely and quite a quirky little movie that is actually very clever, but it’s not a film that can be done again and again. Once is good and you remember bits from it and you remember liking it, but a second time damages that feeling brought about by the first viewing somehow. 

This is a story of boy meets girl. Indeed a boy named Tom meets a girl named Summer. Tom falls in love with Summer from the first moment and they begin seeing each other socially. Tom believes that they are boyfriend and girlfriend, their relationship seems to fall under that label, but Summer is indifferent the whole the label game and, to her, they are just friends. Summer’s instability with the relationship status begins to confuse and annoy Tom and they break up. And then they meet again. And then they part. And Tom mopes around. And then they meet again… This is not a love story, but it is a story about love. 

In terms of a romantic movie, this is pretty good. It explores and conveys the complications and trickiness that can accompany relationships really well. The script is really very good and at this point, I’d like to quickly paint a picture of my favourite scene: our hero is bathing in the afterglow of their first sexual encounter and he struts to work with everyone smiling at him, shaking his hand, hi-fiving him, hugging him, and then it turns almost into a musical number as he and other random people in the park start dancing in unison. I found this scene actually really clever and a very nice depiction of that first morning after. 

The performances were very memorable with our two romantic leads being Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Joseph was easily the star of the show providing most of the romanticism, drama, and comedy. Zooey was just beautiful playing a character that is very natural and free-spirited. The chemistry between the two of them was lovely. 

Starring Geoffrey Arend, Matthew Gray Gubler, Clark Gregg, and Chloe Grace Moretz, 500 Days of Summer is a lovely little movie filled with romance, drama, and comedy. The way it’s structured can get a little confusing because it jumps around to different moments and different days depicting various points of the relationship, but overall it’s quite a nice and enjoyable movie that, watched a first time, will appeal and be very lovely.