(500) Days of Summer

Okay, so I was at a comic book shop the other day and they had free passes to an advance screening of “(500) Days of Summer” sitting out. This was one of the movies that I had been looking forward to all, well, summer. So naturally I jump on the opportunity to see it before it was released here in the Columbus area.

I seems like I’ve been having a feeling of disappointment a lot this year as I’ve exited the majority of the movies I’ve seen. It was during a musical number in which Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is ecstatic after sending the night for the first time with Summer (Zooey Deschanel) that I thought to myself, “Hey, I’m enjoying this!”

Now I think it’s pretty obvious that word has gotten around about this movie and I don’t want it to sound like I’m simply jumping on the band wagon on saying that this movie is good, but it seriously does have a lot going for it. The pacing, the humor, the characters, all of these elements is enjoyable and what make the thing worth watching.

The pacing is done right so that there isn’t a single slow point to loss interest, the humor is sincerely funny and the characters are relatable. At times too relatable, painfully relatable. If you have ever had any kind of attraction to a member of the opposite sex, you will find at least one moment that resembles your life. Towards the beginning of the third act, there is a sequence done with split screen where one side shows Tom’s expectations / prediction of what’s going to happen when meeting up with Summer for the first time in months, while the other side shows reality and what actually does happen. This hits a nerve or two. In fact it’s probably safe to say that everyone in the theater could identify with this sequence. Trust me, it really hits home.

The real main critique I would say is the film chickens out towards the end with a with a more crowd pleasing wrap-up than with I would have predicted. The tagline of the film reads “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.” and most of the film lives up to that idea and theme. Now, as a good movie should, the characters change and grow through out the movie until basically they’re different people by the end. However, I feel the film should have been more brave and gone with a different ending. But this is one of these times where if it was a different ending, then I would be saying that they should have gone with the happier ending. I don’t know. See it for yourself and come to you own conclusion.

I could go on about the theme and what not, but I’m afraid of giving away spoilers and since this movie is only in limited release, chances are not a whole of people have seen it yet. But when it does come to your city, do give yourself the opportunity to go see it. Better if you see it with someone you care about.