A fashion writer reviews ‘(500) Days of Summer’
Jul 16th, 2009 by dino-ray
What Revolutionary Road did for mature, depressed suburbanites; (500) Days of Summer does for the single, quarter-life crisis/thirtysomething set – except it’s a lot less intense and there’s humor involved.
If you’re a young professional, single, cynical and surrounded by couples (both married and not), (500) Days may be a good temporary remedy for you. The movie spans 500 days of a relationship between the hopeless romantic, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a retro-looking girl next door who has a firm belief that love does not exist. Mix them together and you get one helluva anti-love story.
Considering the title, we already know that the relationship doesn’t last; therefore making single people everywhere applaud with “I told you so” glee.
The film is a clever deconstruction of a relationship. With out-of-order technique, we are taken from day 1 to day 421 to day 45 to day 106 and so on and so forth. We see the honeymoon “can’t keep their hands off each other” stage juxtaposed with the jealousy stage of “punching a guy out at a bar for talking to my girl.” Its jumbled storytelling isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but in this kind of “hip” film, it works –and it works well.
The characters are quirky in a Juno sort of way. Tom, dressed in Band of Outsiders-esque garb and dapper slim suits, is a writing professional/aspiring architect at a greeting card company. He’s sort of a drone and finds solace in his wise ass co-workers (one of which is played by the gut-busting Geoffrey Arend). When Summer struts in with her Katy Perry demeanor, he drools over her like Winnie the Pooh to a jar of honey.
It’s the “thrill of the chase” that is riveting when it comes to dating. The dynamic between Tom and Summer illustrates it well. It’s endearing. It’s relatable. It reminds all of us how it is in the infancy of a potential relationship – but with Tom, it is all one-sided. Summer is jaded to the idea of “love” and doesn’t really waste her energy on pursuing Tom. Meanwhile Tom obsesses over questions like: “Should I talk to her?”, “What should I do to attract her?”, “Should I ask her out?”, “She touched my arm, what does that mean?” and so on and so forth. In physical looks alone, they make a good pair, but considering the circumstances, we know they are doomed.
Mr. Gordon-Levitt plays a wonderful lovelorn puppy dog, but as he follows her around with his droopy eyes, it made me come to the realization that, as of late, men have been playing that overly sensitive role. They have no backbone. They are pathetic and hopeless. Women, on the other hand, have been stepping into the shoes of the domineering one; the one who is in control and is detached. Deschanel follows this to a tee with Summer. She’s a maneater and unapologetic. By the end of the movie, you come to the realization that she is, to put it politely, a mild-mannered bitch. In turn, Tom is, to put it politely, an angsty wimp.
The film has been called a “post modern” romantic comedy – whatever that means. I call it witty storytelling. And the fact that Deschanel sings in this movie (as she manages to do in almost every movie she is in) is the icing on the cake. Even if she is a mild-mannered bitch in the movie, you can’t get over her unmatchable style, retro edge and sweet-as-a-cupcake charm. It’s no wonder why every girl says “Oh my God, I looooooove Zooey Deschanel!” when you mention her name.
The 500-day relationship reminds single people that they aren’t in a relationship because the maintenance is just too much to handle. No one is worth that hassle. At the same time, there is a miniscule glimmer of hope that they will find someone we deserve; someone who is worth the hassle. Until then, we (yes, I am single too) have the right to be as cynical and pessimistic as much as we want. There’s a little Summer and Tom in all of us.
(500) Days of Summer opens in San Francisco today, July 17 and expands to other Bay Area theaters on July 24.
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