500 Days of Summer

Impressions before seeing it
Indie romances are so much better than mainstream ones. Plus this one has Zooey Deschanel.

How was it?
This movie made me smile. A lot. In fact I was probably smiling for most of the duration of the film. I think the best way for a movie to charm me is to do something cool and stylish with the way it is filmed. I love the titles counting down the 500 days and helping the audience keep track of where we are chronologically, as the scenes are not linear. I love the use of splitscreen for things like showing the difference between Tom's expectations and reality. I love the classy and somewhat vintage style of the characters and the movies they watch. And these are just on a technical and superficial level.

To dig a little deeper, I guess I shouldn't have called it a "romance", because the film states at the beginning that it is "not a love story", and really it's not. It's about figuring out the meaning of relationships. Where is the line between dating and friendship? How does it change things if you choose to define (or at least put a label on) a relationship? Why is it so much fun to yell out "PENIS!" in public? All of these questions and more are not answered in this film, but it will get you thinking about them. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who has come a long way from Tommy in 3rd Rock From the Sun, and Zooey Deschanel have wonderful chemistry and play it perfectly. I think it's just sitting on the friends/dating line so that even we are as confused about where they stand as Tom is. But who is to blame for that uncertainty? Is it Tom, who idealizes love and thinks this girl is his soulmate, or Summer, who doesn't want anything serious even though they spend as much time together as a serious couple? The problem is that, while they make great friends, they're not compatible lovers because they each wanted something different from the other. Maybe the message of the film, then, is that dating your best friend doesn't always work out, because as the unusually smart little girl tells Tom, "Just because she likes the same weird crap as you doesn't mean you're soulmates."

Recommendation
Tired of boring old mainstream love stories that blatantly try to make you cry? Give this one a viewing!