500 Days of Summer

Director: Marc Webb

Screenwriters: Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber (Pink Panther 2)

Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt (The Lookout, Brick), Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man, The Happening)

Length: 1h 35m

Synopsis: Day 1 begins with greeting card writer Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt) first laying eyes on beautiful new coworker Summer Finn (Deschanel) and immediately falling in love. The preceding few days are him falling deeper in love as the two get to know each other and she begins to reciprocate his affections. There is gum in the works, however, as Summer states up front that she does not want a serious relationship. Tom convinces himself that he is OK with this even though all of her signals indicate that she is just as smitten as him (or do they?). Days 40 through 400 are mercurial to say the least as Tom continually tries to come to grips with Summer’s ambiguous ideals about monogamy. Eventually a boiling point is reached and Tom refuses to torture himself further. Day 500, alas, is the point of complete severance. What first seemed like a fairy-tale relationship ends with mutually optimistic solemnity.

Analysis: In many ways, 500 Days of Summer accomplishes what 2006′s The Break-Up could not. It is impressively capable of being laugh-out-loud funny but also strikingly thought provoking. I compare the films only in a general way, because to downgrade 500 Days to being simply just a rehashing of the same story would be to severely snub its merits. Its aims are higher than the disappointingly trite Vince Vaughn and Jennifer Aniston film, and it achieves a level of poignancy that only writing on the level of Sleepless in Seattle can achieve. The Break-Up was uncomfortable to watch and difficult to connect to, whereas 500 Days (while obviously directed along the male perspective) is enormously engaging. The fine-tuned characters, whose roles could have easily been reversed, are identifiable at the least and no doubt largely familiar to many. Unrequited love is every bit as old as true love, and discovering that you have the former when you believed you had the latter is an experience that most would not wish on their worst enemies. Nevertheless, none of us are immune to such an experience. But what 500 Days of Summer tries to teach in the end is that just because such an experience can happen or has happened it does not mean that the chances of finding true love are non-existent, or that the probability of such good fortune is any less in our favor. To further expose the extra depth of the film, it (like many classic romantic comedies) provides a hidden warning; a lesson embedded under the surface of the general plot. The character of Tom feels forced to give up his architectural studies in order to pay the bills with his job as a novelty greeting card writer. He had a passion for the beauty found in architecture, which he decided to stuff under his cap presuming it would never prove to be useful. During the downfall of his and Summer’s relationship he begins to revisit this artistic passion, eventually deciding that it is the direction of his future. In other words, he journeys from architecture (a medium that is fundamentally a mix of practicality and beauty), to writing novelty cards (hyperbolic expressions of emotion), back to architecture – realistic reverie, to fantasy, and back. The lesson reveals itself when we recall that it was when Tom willingly allowed himself to live in a world of fantasy and ideology (symbolically of course) that his relationship with Summer took place, and it was when he revisited the combination of hopefulness and practicality that he was able to move past his romantic tragedy. Such a practical, sensible statement fits perfectly with the bigger message of the film, which bluntly states that sometimes people simply just don’t completely fit together (Robert Redford and Barbara Streisand’s The Way We Were has a very similar message). But have no fear, because there are plenty of fish in the sea.

Rating: 8.5

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