(500) Days of Summer
There’s no escaping the obvious, this is clearly an indie film. A young man and woman living in a big city. A not-a-love-story. Job dissatisfaction paired with vintage clothing and skinny ties. You like this band? Zooey. Even the down to earth photographs and the little sketches on the poster establish Marc Webb’s (500) Days of Summer as part of the indie genre.
The film is very focused on the fact that it isn’t a love story, which isn’t so much because there’s no love involved but more to do with the doomed nature of the romance, in part because of Summer Finn’s (Zooey Deschanel) free spirited yet neurotic avoidance of being in a relationship. So much of the film is focused on this theme that I feel it becomes somewhat softened as the film goes on. While the story is essentially told from Tom Hansen’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) point of view, it’s Summer’s that permeates the narrative. You aren’t allowed to forget this and get lost in the pleasant escape of Tom’s romantic thoughts, as you may in a more classical romantic comedy. Just for a moment this might have been nice.
From the outset the film gets creative in ways similar to American Splendor in which the content within the film transcended the usual boundaries of a narrative film. It’s these quirks in the storytelling that help lift the film up and above the regular boy meets girl story. Having totally nailed the non-chronological narrative, Tarantino managed to ensure than many of his descendants would seem uninspired and weird. This isn’t the case for (500) Days of Summer, this technique and others enhance the narrative without being jarring, confusing or a transparent attempt at clever. Similarities could be drawn to CBS’ How I Met Your Mother in terms of both narrative structure and character. Though I’ll avoid shedding too much light on the story, the naive romantic male character and his less-so female counterpart is one of the more interesting features of (500) and one that seems to be becoming more common in popular culture.
The chosen leads bring expectations to the film. Joseph Gordon-Levitt performs well and fulfills the character, particularly the charming aspects. In fact, if he weren’t such a charming bastard then (500) might be heading to the manic pixie dream girl bin down at blockbuster. Zooey is at least a little different from normal. She’s not the space child from Yes Man, the astro kid from Weeds or the strange girl from Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, but she is dreamy, independent and charming.
(500) Days of Summer reveals it’s hand early, but it can still surprise you. Though the formula matches the genre it’s still the most original romantic comedy I’ve seen in some time and for this alone it deserves credit. I’d have contemplated relegating this one to the maybe pile if it weren’t for some great humor, a polished soundtrack and the worthy story. Plus, I’m pretty sure we all want to watch more Zooey.
