Watching
films is something that has grown on me as the years past, and it was only
within the past four years that I've truly embraced it by doing film reviews on
a blog. And each year, I've been able to watch about fifty to eighty films a
year. So I figure, now is a good time for me to talk about a film that I
consider to be my personal favorite, (500)
Days of Summer.
The film is about the relationship
between Tom Hanson and Summer Finn, who worked together at a greeting card
company...and that's it. There's no villain, there's no tragic accident, and
none of the common traits you find in most romantic comedies. The film clearly
states that it's not a love story, but rather a story ABOUT love. The film
mostly seen through Tom's perspective, during those five hundred days he's had
with Summer, as the title states, but the days aren't shown in chronological
order. There are times when the days will jump back and forth, with two similar
moments of when Tom was enjoying his relationship with her, and to a point
further on when he wasn't. For example, we have a day where Tom goes into an
elevator, clearly happy as he's with Summer, but then we jump to a day further
on, where he steps out of the elevator, where he's depressed from the break-up.
It may seem confusing at first, but the film does have a counter as to which
day we're jumping to, so we're still on track of what's going on. After all,
one of the first scenes we see Tom and Summer talking is when they break up, so
we are aware of what day it happened. It's a pretty bold move to start your
movie out with the couple breaking up, but it also gives us the interest on how
they got to that point. I have to give credit to the writers of the film, Scott
Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, for taking such bold moves with their script.
Thankfully, these two are still able to get work, with the success of films
such as The Spectacular Now and The Fault in Our Stars, which are both
excellent films as well.
It also helps to have your script be
performed with a cast of great actors. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel
as Tom and Summer have great chemistry. The two work off of each other like
actual people would in a relationship, instead of the typical movie couple.
They do have weird quirks, they do have flaws with one another, they both have
their ideal dreams that they've left behind, and you do buy their relationship
during the scenes they're together. The furniture store scene is one of the
best scenes in the movie, where they go through different kitchen scenery,
pretending to be a couple home from work. They act like two little kids playing
house in their backyard, and it shows just how well they work off each other.
Chloe Grace Moretz plays Tom's sister, Rachel, who sort of acts like his
therapist, giving him advice when he needs it, adding a twinge of irony to the
situation. A grown man seeking help from his sister on the whole ordeal adds to
the subtle humor, and Moretz shows us why she's one of the best young actresses
of our generation.
The film's final act is one of the
most perfect endings to any film that I've seen. It's hard not to talk about
this film, without also bringing up the ending, so spoiler alert. After not
seeing her since she quit her job, Tom finally meets up with Summer again at a
wedding, and she invites him to a party. During his time there, we see two
perspectives, “expectations” and “reality.” He expects that this would be the
night he and Summer get back together, but the truth is he barely talks to her,
and spends most of the party alone. He soon finds out that the party is in
celebration of her engagement to somebody, so he leaves and soon goes into a
deeper depression. When he returns to work, he has a “fuck it all” moment, and
quits, deciding to finally go into his dream job, architecture. When he meets
Summer again, they have a moment where he can finally be happy without her, and
wishes her the best. This ending has something that most love stories don't
have: truth. Not everyone is going to win the girl in the end, not everyone has
their dreams fulfilled, and this film shows us that without sugar-coating it.
Marc Webb, really knows how to direct relationships, and this ending proves
that immensely. Relationships are always the highlight of his films, and with
this one being focused entirely on that, makes it a film that's impossible to
hate.
Ever since its release in 2009, (500) Days of Summer still remains to
be my all-time favorite film. The acting, the writing, and the direction are
handled to their absolute best, and I wouldn't have it any other way. It's a
film that I'll go back to, and it gets better and better with each viewing.
It's a film that I doubt will ever be topped any time soon, or any time after
that.
