500 Days of Summer is a wildly likable film that actually delivers on some originality. Marc Webb, in his impressive directorial debut shows us an admirable story about love. Many have thrown around the term “classic“, and while that is an overstatement, this surely will become a gem of its genre.
Tom is a hopeless romantic that believes in love at first sight and destiny. Tom grew up with fairy tale perceptions of love due to pop culture influence and The Graduate. After falling in love with his bosses’ assistant Summer, he soon starts to question the idea of love. Summer doesn’t share the same idea of love that Tom has, she’s more free spirited and doesn’t believe in fait. The film covers the first time they met, when they break up, and Tom’s transition after the break up. It’s told purely from his perspective.
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While the story may be a tad conventional, it overcomes this burden with a handful of terrific scenes and a convincing couple. As the trailers said, “this is not a love story but a story about love”, which is a perfect representation. Tom’s ideas of love are similar to fairy tales, he believes that there is only one woman out there that he is destined to be with. This perception is of course outlandish, but this makes a rather intriguing commentary on society. There are people out there who gain false hopes and ideas based on movies, this film finally confronts that idea and it’s refreshing. His love for Summer, or the love he believes he has for Summer, reflects every false hope he has. Nothing good comes to Tom out of being with Summer, but at times he seems blinded by his own unique take on love. As a quick side note, the whole quirky best friends and far too smart youngster cliches are starting to get quite irritating. Those cliches are present here and they are annoying.
The real bright spot of this picture is Marc Webb’s direction which is beyond impressive. The out of sequence story telling isn’t anything new, but there are visual moments that scream originality. From a terrific dance sequence that features a lovable Han Solo cameo to a wonderful scene that uses split screen to portray reality and hopes. This is a very clever moment in particular, filled with numerous small details that make it that much more engaging. A few of the frames are similar, but the small changes whether it be just a different expression or a change in body language make the difference between reality and hope even more noticeable and effective.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has always proved himself as a terrific actor with films like Brick and The Lookout, but here he allows the audience to see a different side of his abilities. This performance is even more proof of how much range Levitt has as an actor. He portrays the hopeless blinded romantic perfectly while also making for a sympathetic and likable character. No matter how mopey or happy he acts, Tom always remains an engaging character due to Levitt’s charismatic performance. Zooey Deschanel also delivers a note-worthy performance as Summer who makes for the perfect counterpart to Tom. Despite not playing a character as fascinating as Tom, Deschanel makes sympathetic character despite acting a bit cold and distant at times.
With steady pacing, terrific performances, and splendid direction, 500 Days of Summer is a truly excellent film. Hardly any films, nowadays, that deal with the subject of love grasp this level of investment and interest, but this film does. The story does have a few problems due to the ever so cliche side characters, but those minor issues aren’t too distracting.