500 Days of Summer 2009
I wasn’t sure what to expect from this movie and I don’t even think it was what I meant to pick out (I think I was looking for Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist). You are told pretty much right off the bat that the movie is about two people breaking up. But rather than just giving you the conventional story, they have chopped and sliced the timeline and present it in no particular order. So you see heartache one scene and joy in another.
The relationship in question involves a character played by Zooey Deschanel as a new girl at work who is not looking for a relationship and Joseph Gordon-Levitt (from Third Rock from the Sun and The Lookout) who is instantly smitten (as is everyone else) with this girl named Summer.
That’s really about it. It’s kind of like Annie Hall, taken mostly from Gordon-Levitt’s point of view, including the deep depression his life takes after the break-up. It is hard to do that without making the character seem so pathetic and self-involved that you don’t care about him. But I think his situation touches a place where everyone is at some point. It was a little less of a romantic comedy and more of a drama than I thought it would be, but it is fun watching the relationship and the writing is very good.
It’s not romantic, but it isn’t anti-romantic either. It’s just the story of a life in transition. I enjoyed it.
Written: 21 Aug 2010
Owned on: Blu-ray, Digital