REVIEW: (500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer (dir. Marc Webb, 2009) *****

reviewed by David Sugarman

Right at the beginning of (500) Days of Summer, the narrator informs the audience that this is “A story of boy meets girl”, but “it is not a love story”. Marc Webb’s film does not detail a relationship that overcomes obstacles to unite its protagonists. Like Annie Hall and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind before it, (500) Days of Summer instead revisits moments from Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn’s (Zooey Deschanel) coexistence as colleagues, friends, and lovers in no particular order. Like those other two films, (500) Days does not insist that honesty and realism must go together, instead allowing surreal moments to flower unexpectedly: a full-on Hollywood musical mass dance number; a black & white cinema dream montage; and Tom’s little sister is exactly the kind of wise-beyond-her-years girl that Hollywood has always insisted exists.

One of the film’s crowning set-pieces (and one much discussed by critics) is one in which Tom attends a party thrown by Summer, after she has left him. In split-screen, one half of the screen shows Tom’s expectations, the other reality. Joseph Gordon-Levitt holds a very dear place in my heart through his role in the indie high school-noir Brick, and he’s a perfect fit for the likeable Tom, caught up in a dead-end job he has no interest in. Though he qualified as an architect, Tom now writes greeting cards, and it is here that he meets Deschanel’s Summer when she becomes his boss’s assistant. I think Deschanel is a good actor, though I can’t be sure; whether because of acting talent, or through sheer beauty, Zooey Deschanel simply radiates charisma. Both of the stars flourish with the aid of the brilliantly witty script. Although much of the film is infused with heartbreak, it is also riotously funny, and Geoffrey Arend is hilarious as Tom’s colleague and school-friend McKenzie. Despite the frequently downbeat tone of the film, (500) Days of Summer is constructed with such verve and aplomb that you’ll leave the cinema beaming.

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OK? This is possibly my favourite film of the summer, I absolutely adored it. You can probably tell. If you’ve seen it, I hope you think my review does it justice. I know Paz disagrees with me entirely.

David