(500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer

Day one, boy meets girl.
Day two, boy obsesses over girl.
Day three through day 500, boys repeats process of day two with occasional moments of bliss lifting him above the clouds of heartbreak only to come back down to his meager and lowly existence. That is the movie in a nutshell, but I suppose I could shed more light on it. However let me begin by telling you what this movie isn’t. It isn’t Serendipity, Message in a Bottle, or Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants(that was a love story wasn’t it?). It wasn’t Maid in Manhattan, Failure to Lunch, or The Notebook either. Basically it wasn’t your typical boy meets girl/over the top/prove my love to/win the girl at any cost/Hollywood love saga.

Instead (500) Days of Summer was a true to life clever approach to the real side of love. The pain, the frustration, and the agony we in the real world, not Hollywood, have come to know all too well. Namely what it’s like to fall for someone that doesn’t ever fall quite as hard or fast for you. Playing the part of the desperate to impress boy was Joseph Gordon-Levitt(remember 3rd Rock from the Sun? Well he’s grown up a bit since then) and playing the object of his obsession was the charming Zooey Deschanel(Elf). The two meet at work when Miss Deschanel is hired as the assistant to Mr. Gordon-Levitt’s Boss. Slowly the two get to know each other, and with each passing day Gordon-Levitt becomes more smitten by Deschanel. The short of it is that the two gradually work their way into a non-working relationship that the boy only wants to strengthen and validate and the girl only desires to casually continue without serious talk or labels. Miss Deschanel manages to string him on through out the course of the movie in what is one point ironical referred to by the narrator as “not a love story” at least not for the two.

What impressed me about the film was that it didn’t subscribe to a more conventional methodology, it wasn’t predictable nor cliche, it included a great scene shot at IKEA(I don’t want to spoil anything but it may or may not have involved meatballs), and it even included a impromptu musical scene that could rival a Broadway production. (500) Days of Summer knows when to pull the punches and when to draw the laughs. I don’t think I’ve seen a romantic comedy so refreshing and honest since High Fidelity. Oh l’amour, c’est fantastique or c’est la vie.