(500) Days of Summer

2009

Director: Marc Webb

Distributor: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Key Elements: Message – Music - Visual

Review:

Tom is a naive romantic.  Summer is a wounded skeptic.  Tom wants to be in a meaningful, committed relationship.  Summer wants a friend with benefits.

Tom falls for Summer.  You have probably already guessed that Tom gets hurt. After all, "This is not a love story."

This un-rom-com is about learning from antithesis. Sometimes we know love better by knowing what it isn't. And love is not how Tom feels about Summer.

Tom says, "I love how she makes me feel."  That's key. Tom doesn't see it, but Summer is just a means to fulfilling his romantic hopes. He doesn't really love HER.

Were it love, he wouldn't be so self-focused in his pursuit of Summer.  And he wouldn't become impatient with Summer and short with his friends when things don't go as he expects.

But, the movie ends with a new season and the hope that Tom has learned from the experience.

The cool thing is that the movie delivers this sobering message with whim. The story is told in non-chronological order with visual metaphor and hyperbole, expectation/reality splices and one of the best song selections ever played in a movie.

But why did it take so long for Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt to do a movie together?  They're such an obvious pair-up!

BTW - I think it's hilarious how this movie made The Smiths suddenly reappear on everyone's playlists after years of obscurity. Awesome.

Trailer:

Promotional Video (Song by Zooey Deschanel's She and Him):

Quotes:

• The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental. Especially you Jenny Beckman. Bitch.
• This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront, this is not a love story.
• It's love; it's not Santa Claus.
• What always happens: Life.
• Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate.
• Tom, don't go! You're still my best friend!
• It's these cards and the movies and the pop songs, they're to blame for all lies and the heartache, everything.
• Look, I know you think she was the one, but I don't. Now, I think you're just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I, uh, I really think you should look again.
•  You weren't wrong, Tom. You were just wrong about me.
• Nice to meet you. I'm Autumn.

Stills: