(500) Days of Summer (2009)

director: Marc Webb

writers: Scott Neustadler, Michael H. Weber

starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel

genre: Comedy, Romance

Let me start this review by stating that I'm like anyone else, I have had some romance in my life. Some good, some bad and some great. And due to this I have a specific way of looking at love and romance. I prefer for a more realistic way of seeing romance in cinema. Instead of just accepting the way romantic comedy's of Hollywood are. Love and relationships are portrayed today in a manner as if there is always something perfect. But the truth is everything is fake and out of order. Everything doesn't have a happy ending and every story dosent have to be recycled. A logical person will be fed up with the genre by now. But then comes a film like this that changes it all around. (500) Days of Summer happens to be the best romantic comedy of the year and any couple should jump to the chance and see this film.

The story is of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and his 500 days of knowing Summer (Zooey Deschanel). From their first meeting to the very end of their connection. As the film says from the very beginning this not a love story. The films story is more like a retrospective of what love can do to a man. From the ecstasy it brings him, to the depression that it can lead him to. Tom always wanted to find the love of his life. But sometimes finding the love of your life doesn't mean you are the love of their life.

Sometimes when we critique films we get too caught up in the details and the production of a film. We forget to mention just simply the way a film makes us feel emotionally. Each film leaves a diffrent impact on us. (500) Days of Summer made me once again see in a different way the beauties and hardships of love. The film is not the most glamorous take on love or the most devasting depiction of depression due to love lost. It's the little things that the makers of this film wanted to emphasize on. Too much do we look to the extremes in the genre with a grand chase scene, where at the last second the women will realize she has made a mistake or the man runs to catch the female before her plane leaves. Here the only glorified moment is a fantasy scene of how any one of us feel when we are truly happy.

What many films lack is a connection to the characters experiences with our own. I can understand the way the characters feel because I've passed similar situations. How love and relationships change our outlook at life and the way we live it. You go into love either a cynic or romantic and in the end you might change your mind about what really love is to you. Of course based on the outcome of your own experience. (500) Days of Summer hits this message right on the nail. It precisely shows that love is all about coincidence and chance. Love will happen or it wont. We all don't deserve love or will finally get it. Its sad how it is. But thats how it works and thats how this film treats the subject so well. Of course there will be tiny cliches here and there but where talking about the genre of recycled crap right? But the overall message of the film is that love can always strike again, as long as you don't let chance pass you by.

Ill end by saying that romantic comedies are not like any other genre. As bad as they get people still go and see them. Few romantic films come out, that i can relate to the characters experiences. And there is where the trick lies with me. Something realistic, plausible and smart like we have here, is always the right way to go in these kind of films. But people for odd reasons, lets call it lack of taste, enjoy Sex and the City the movie for example. How can they relate with the characters? The question can answer itself. Either their terribly ignorant or people just dont care. People dont care enough about the genre to ask for better romantic films. So take this chance that a great romantic film has been made and see it while you can. Because the mass audience of people who don't care about the bad films, are the ones who think love is connected to money, fame, muscles and fairy tale scenarios. Say no to Pretty Woman, say no to the Ugly Truth and just say yes to (500) Days of Summer.

Personal Rating:

Review by Paul