‘(500) Days of Summer’ Review

Release Date – 7/17/09 (limited)

Tom is a regular dude working at a greeting card company, living a regular life, when all of a sudden the boss’s new assistant comes in. From the minute he sees her, he knows Summer is the girl of his dreams. He hasn’t even spoken a single word to her yet he knows she’s the one. Over the next 500 days we are treated to the ups and downs in their relationship. Unfortunately for Tom, Summer doesn’t believe in love. If your chick is itching for a movie more up her alley then this would be a good choice. It’s a very unique movie with some laughs and a decent story. There are some cliché chick flick moments but the originality outweighs the overdone elements.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Tom. This dude is a damn good actor. He’s the kid from the TV show 3rd Rock from the Sun. I would have never imagined he’d be a movie star but I really enjoy him in anything I see him in. No difference here. He’s a very likable character and you want him to be happy in the end. Speaking of likable, Zooey Deschanel is Summer. She pulls off yet another lovable cute girl in this movie. Sure she’s the same character in every film she does but it just comes off well on screen. The movie is mostly just those two but the occasional silly buddy is there too for comic relief. Geoffrey Arend (Back Seat Stoned Guy from Super Troopers) is really funny in this. I’d nominate him for Best Drunk Scene at the Movie Wiseguy Awards at the end of the year.

Now this is not a run of the mill movie. Its edited together all out of time, like a chick flick Pulp Fiction. They’ll show you which Day you’re on out of the 500 Days. In the lower numbers things are looking great and everything is happy-go-lucky. In the higher numbers everything is falling apart. And they flip back and forth between days constantly so you are seeing the good and bad in rotation. Now of course the main cliché plot element is the chick who thinks there’s no such thing as love and the dude who tries to prove her wrong. At first he doesn’t care about it but you know it’s going to lead to arguments later in the movie. I guess the one downside was I kind of felt like I was watching a different version of Garden State. Although I liked this movie more just because of its unique qualities (like a funny dance number out of nowhere, and even some narration to make it like a story). Like I said before, this is a movie a dude should take his chick to. It’s the guy trying to get the girl instead of the typical girl’s point of view. Like the tagline says, this is not a love story. This is a story about love. As for relationship movies this year, it falls a bit short of Away We Go. But its easy to get wrapped up in the storyline, has some laughs, and the ending isn’t too predictable. Newbie director Marc Webb has a good flick on his hands.

IMDB – 8.2/10
Rotten Tomatoes – 93%
Movie Wiseguys – 7/10