500 days of summerThe kid from 3rd Rock from the Sun is all grown up and he’s really good in this movie. My apologies to Joseph Gordon-Levitt for not realizing it sooner, but after seeing (500) Days of Summer I’m going to go out and rent some of the other movies he’s done since his teenage sitcom days. In (500) Days, he plays Tom Hansen. He’s the guy who believes in true love, in soul mates, in finding “the one.” Zooey Deschanel plays Summer. She believes none of that stuff about love. Tom is a romantic. She is not.

Despite this, and the fact that Summer tells Tom upfront that she’s not looking for a boyfriend, they start dating – or whatever it is because Summer would prefer not to put a label on it. They have some fun, but it ends. This isn’t giving anything away because they tell you at the beginning of the film “this is not a love story.” It is a story about love and about the fact that Tom falls hard for Summer, but Summer does not fall for Tom.

The movie flips back and forth through the days of their relationship, their break-up and the grieving period Tom goes through after it ends. There are some very funny moments like a fantastical little dance number Tom does to a Hall and Oates song and some amusing references to Fellini and Bergman films (although I suspect some people may find these annoying in a “oh how indie” kind of way). There are also times when you’ll feel bad for Tom and times when you’ll want to smack him in the back of the head and yell “snap out of it.” Overall (500) Days of Summer is a fun film with fine performances – not to mention a great soundtrack.

2 thoughts on “(500) Days of Summer”
  1. Adventurous Chick beat me to the punch on this one, but I generally concur with her review. It’s a good movie, and I think it’s a shame that it’s not in wider release. I had to travel way outside my zip code to see it.

    I, too, loved the soundtrack and appreciated the fine performances by Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel… They pretty much carry the whole movie. (500) Days is one of those movies that raises questions in your head long after you leave the theater. I won’t give anything away – but let’s just say the movie allows you (or forces you) to use your imagination to fill in the blanks about what may have transpired between certain characters on certain ‘days’. It’s definitely a chick flick, but could make for an awkward date movie. Then again, it could provide an opening for a very interesting dialogue… 🙂

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