Force Fed Films: (500) Days of Summer (2009)

How do you talk about a movie that ends up affecting you in a very personal way without getting personal about it? That's the problem I'm having with (500) Days of Summer. I'm not sure what suddenly made Puneet think of this movie when coming up with something for me to watch this week, but I certainly remember all the buzz surrounding it. That was back before Inception made me not hate Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I'd also have to say I had a very wrong impression about this movie. I thought it was going to be all highschool sappy falling in love. Actually it's a very grown up look at relationships. A few of my thoughts after the jump.


I think I should try my best to explain the story, since I had the totally wrong impression myself before actually watching it. Ah, who am I kidding, I'm not going to be able to explain this any better either. First note to remember though, the characters are all already out of school, even college/university it seems. So isn't all kids like I thought it was going to be. Nevertheless, the story is about how Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets and falls in love with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). As the tagline says though, "this is not a love story. It is a story about love." Yes, it's true, things don't work out between them, and I'd say the majority of the movie is about Tom trying to get over her, but she keeps coming back and wanting to just be friends. That of course confuses him quite a bit.

Tom believes that Summer is "The One"

The unique thing about this movie is that it's not told in a simple Point A to Point B fashion. We frequently are shown a counter, very similar to the titular "(500)", brackets and all. For example (1) is the first day he sees Summer, while on day (402) he bumps into her, awkwardly, on a train after some time apart. The counter jumps around constantly, rarely showing things in chronological order. For the most part it shows the larger events in order, but it will always jump to a quick preview of what is going to come, always reminding you that things won't be perfect with them. However, as the film approaches the end, you'll very much be able to piece the whole thing together, fully understanding what happened between them.

Ultimately things won't work out for them, and we watch Tom's heart break

While not every moment of this movie will ring true with anyone, everyone will see some facet of it that will likely remind them of some moment of their life. Whether it's the feeling of seeing that person of your dreams for the first time, or having a song remind you of them; Feeling like a musical will breakout around you at any second and a cartoon bluebird will land on your shoulder, or maybe it could be that first moment before you broke up, or were dumped, when the person wouldn't hold your hand for the first time. Maybe that person you had such a big crush on told you those words at the very beginning; you know the ones, how they're not looking for anything serious. But you say 'Yes' to them anyways, acting like it's not a big deal, but always thinking, 'I'm sure that wall will eventually crack, crumble and fall.' But it never does, and it's not like they didn't tell you at the start. Or maybe, oddly, you'll suddenly be in an French art-house film in black and white. Yeah, that happened.

Things don't always work out the way you hoped they would

I really thought (500) Days of Summer would be a super teen, hipster mushy love story. Instead I found a surprisingly mature look at something that could happen to anyone in real life. It's a very down-to-Earth story with a few rare artistic licenses taken (like the bluebird previously mentioned) to keep things interesting. It's like seeing real life, but then also showing raw emotions in the only way a movie could. Music, visuals, even the flow of time; all of it is used to help convey the situations bouncing around throughout the film.

Obviously, being able to make the movie seem so real could only be done with really great acting. I've seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt show emotion a little more effectively in 50/50, but this was definitely another example of why he's a great actor. I'm not a big fan of Zooey Deschanel, she's just not my kind of girl, but she comes across feeling very true as well. Definitely an major improvement over The Happening.

I didn't think I would like this movie going in, but it won me over before long. I wouldn't say I loved the movie, but I thought it was very good. I think almost everyone will have a different experience with (500) Days of Summer, and it will likely be so personal that it could even be about something you've never told anyone about. And yet, everyone else has those moments too. In a way, this movie can make you feel like you've always been alone, and yet you've never been alone, all at the same time. I'd just like to end this with a quote from the movie.

"What happened? Why - Why didn't they work out?" "What always happens. Life."