Review by Ben Chamberlain
Expectations: Going into (500) Days of Summer my expectations were high, so high in fact that I thought it may finally be the film to knock Garden State off of its cosy #1 spot on my all-time list. I thought the film would have great performances from its lead actors, have a great, almost perfect soundtrack and it would be original, amazing, touching and hilarious. So leaving (500) Days of Summer, did it met my expectations or fail miserably in it’s quest for difference?
The film opens with a big gloomy voice telling you that this is a story about love, but this is not a love story. The films tagline tells you that a boy meets a girl, boy falls in love, girl doesn’t. Going into (500) Days this is pretty much all you need to know, because this is pretty much the extent of it’s very simple, very straight-forward storyline. The film charts the 500 days that Tom Hansen had Summer Finn in his life. The film benefits from it's lack of story because it allows the film to be unique. Don’t expect your regular, used 1000 times sort of romance story here, because its just not here. This is romantic comedy with a difference.
Moving on with the story some more. The film has a very broken narrative. For the uneducated, the film is not told in one long story, it's not told in chronological order, it is told out of date, out of order and all over the place. But due to its simple story, the broken narrative is extremely easy to follow. Each scene starts with a number before it telling you which day in this relationship it is. As it jumps back and forward, you start to see where it all broke down, and you also see how it all started. It works wonderfully well with the unusual story, because really who wants to watch a film with a difference without it feeling like a film with difference? Kudos to the writers for crafting such a brilliant, simple story.
The casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel was one of genius. The two have amazing chemistry, some of the best ever put on screen. Levitt’s performance is great as he is happy one moment and manic-depressive the next. He handles each extreme as it comes. He arrived with Brick and this just strengthens the fact he is going to be one incredibly great actor in the future. Deschanel is Deschanel and she does her usual Deschanel things, meaning she is and acts incredibly cute and even when she is being a bitch, you still love her to bits. The two have since become very good friends and are looking for more projects to do together , I look forward to seeing them on screen again.
The film is directed by first-timer Marc Webb. Webb has a background in music videos and that clearly shows here. Many scenes don’t rely on dialogue to get the point across, they are purely built on songs. The soundtrack is perfect, I guess that’s what happens when its directed by a music video director. Each song has clearly been painstakingly picked to be just perfect for the film. Most of the time soundtracks just don’t fit well with the film, but the soundtrack here is literally perfect.
Back to Webb, he does a fantastic job for a first-time director. But he did have lots of help. With the script being amazing and the actors having instant chemistry, half of his job was already done. However, as well as bringing music, he also brings a unique visual style. Some scenes have key visual elements and Webb captures them all very well. There is one scene in particular where Tom walks down a street and the whole street turns into a dark, gloomy, rather sad drawing. The scene was beautiful and the film has many other moments like this.
Reality: (500) Days of Summer is a near perfect movie that warms your heart and makes you fall in love with it. The acting, the direction, the writing, the production, the music, everything about this film is high-grade stuff. It has met my expectations and gone beyond them. It is a hyped film that actually delivered on the hype and it is the must see movie of the year. Whilst other, more complicated films released this year may be better, more meaningful, no other film released this will be as perfect. (500) Days of Summer is my favourite film of not only this year, but the whole decade.
(500) Days of Summer will be cinemas from September 17.
Submitted by Milky-Shee
12/09/2009
5
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