(500) Days of Summer

(500) DAYS OF SUMMER claims to be an anti-love story, a poisoned penned tale about how love really works. Despite some cloying touches of whimsy it mostly hits the mark. Instead of being poisonous, perhaps it will just put you in a light coma. When you wake up you'll be ready for love again.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, initially a sad sack romantic who was raised on movies and pop music to contort his ideal view of love. He meet-cutes Zooey Deschanel -playing the titular Summer- at their shared workplace, a greeting card company. The story follows Tom non-linearly through a 500 day period with Summer. We see many scenes where Tom's ecstasy over being with Summer is paired immediately with his misery over losing her, but not in that order. Tom falls in love with Summer, but Summer can't love Tom the same way. After the break up we continue to see Tom analyze why the relationship didn't last, interspersed with flashbacks to happier times. The free floating nature of the narrative puts the ups and downs of love into stark relief and makes the observations all that much sharper. Including one of the most heartbreaking scenes in the film: a split screen view of Tom's attempt to win Summer back displaying his "Expectations" versus "Reality".

The film works best when it successfully subverts the traditional cliches of an "indie" romantic comedy. Tom is the kind of romantic, sensitive guy who's Joy Division "Love Will Tear Us Apart" t-shirt says all we need to know about the fictional roots of his character. He comes from a long tradition of cynics who secretly hope they will find their own Manic Pixie Dream Girl to save them from the drudgery of everyday life. He goes all the way back to Dustin Hoffman in THE GRADUATE (the final scene of which plays during this film) right up to Zach Braff in his GRADUATE riff GARDEN STATE. However, Summer turns out not to be the MPDG of the film (a first for Deschanel), if anything Tom is the Manic Pixie Dream Boy. Always sketching buildings for an architecture career he won't pursue and generally living his life as if it's a John Hughes movie (mourn ya til I join ya, brother). Summer is, in actuality, just a normal, damaged girl who won't let love in. Eventually, Tom learns his lesson in living a better life not through being with the girl of his dreams, but when he realizes he can't ever have her. Most romantic comedies don't have the two leads stay separated through to the credits.

Gordon-Levitt plays Tom excellently, exuding real joy when he's with his love, and real pain when he realizes she isn't going to love him back. His expressive face and delivery just sell his part perfectly. You want to follow him through his story and you feel the sting of every mistake he makes.

As a few of the directorial innovations make the film entertaining and heartfelt, a dance sequence to Hall & Oates where Tom celebrates consummating his relationship, the aforementioned split screen, and Tom's post break-up fantasy where he plays the part of a lonely man in an homage to European art films. There is a fair bit of quirk that just doesn't seem to fit with the more realistic tone. As if this it was added by Fox ride the wave of JUNO popularity. There's Tom's prepubescent sister, who dispenses sage romantic advice well before her age. Perhaps this was supposed to be a joke about this kind of cliched character, but it's never really makes any kind of subversive comment about that. There's also a whimsical narrator that begins the film, and the kind of erratically pops up throughout. He feels almost completely like an afterthought, as if they found narration from some unaired Pushing Daisies episode they needed to put to good use. The heart of the film though, and how personal it feels overshadow these elements nearly completely. It's a bittersweet story that might be the most biting film about love since ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, a film which would be a great double feature with this one.