500 Days of Summer

I really love this movie. I like the off beat style it has, it's non designer clothing and real life settings of the workplace, bars, and apartments. Many people could look at the lives of Tom and Summer and draw parallels with their own lives. I also enjoy the cut scenes where they as people their opinions on whatever the current story line is throughout the movie. What I love the most? The sound track, which included many interesting non-mainstream bands. However I do enjoy the story line and following Tom and Summer through their ever changing relationship. I like the message it gets across at the end, just because you think they were the one, doesn't mean they are.

500 Days of Summer is a romantic comedy, but it doesn't follow the generic script that most of these types of films do. It used non-chronological sequencing in order to tell the story of Summer and Tom. The 500 days gimmick helped the audience to keep up with what point in the relationship events were occurring. It definitely had an indy-film vibe to it, so the comedy wasn't cheap. There were parts of the movie that seemed slow, but it made me laugh at times as well. It ended in a way that didn't leave me disappointed, and wasn't standard Hollywood. Overall it was a pretty decent choice to sit down with the wife with for a chick flick.

This movie was a bit of a paradox for me. I like Zooey Deschanel. I like the structure of the film, skipping back and forth through a 500 day relationship. I liked the soundtrack. There were a few reasonably funny observations about greeting cards, too. But I did not really enjoy this movie as much as I wanted to. Perhaps it was the heavy narration (although that is very brief). Maybe something was a little too twee about Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Or it could have been the cliched career-switch element of the plot. I'm not really sure.

I saw this film some time ago and, although it was entertaining, it never got beyond the superficial level of 'gosh, I'm almost an adult'. There were some okay buddy-buddy connections, and acknowledgments that gender does make a difference. The characters were likeable, the music kicked, things did move along, predictably.

A little spoiler alert is in place here, so read on only if you dare. I really liked this film. The dialogue felt real, as did the characters. The script contains a lot of pretentious and impressive twists that all feel real. The film made me feel that the clichés and the little things that made the characters happy and sad are what mattered. That everyday feeling, together with the constant anachronistic jumping in time and the "supernatural" sequences (e.g. where Tom turns a walk to work into a musical daydream with drawn birds and a big band), the brilliant soundtrack (with Morrissey regalia to boot, imagine that) and a lot of desire turned this film into a great experience for me. Very cute, calm, American (I feel, as a non-American) and recommendable.

I wanted to love this movie. Alas, I only liked it. In a strange way, then, this review mirrors the substance of the film itself. Narration at the beginning of the film prepares us for the fact that this boy meets girl story does not have a happy ending. The boy (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is looking for The One that he will love. And he thinks he has found her (in the character Summer Finn, played by Zooey Deschanel). We zig-zag back and forth through the 500 days of their friendship – catching the highs, the lows, the funny stops along the way – and ultimately see it all unravel, in a realistic way, in a way that’s actually quite for the best of boy and girl. So *(500) Days of Summer *earns points for being different and for being smart. But just as there are reasons why you didn’t marry that guy/girl that you only liked, it’s tough to love this movie through and through. It does have its charms. The light experimental elements in the film sometimes work big-time (the... Read more

While it might be unjust to call the "love" story at the heart of (500) Days of Summer conventional, you'd never it know it with the multitude of brilliant inventions heightening this tale of chasing dreams and fateful fantasy. From clever juxtapositions of events and the seamless integration of classic films, traditional animation, and a morose narrator, to unique editing and a visual calendar of fledgling love and tragic heartache, "Summer" transcends the romantic comedy genre to become an engagingly mature, yet whimsical look at that ever-so-fragile emotion and its effects both glorious and dispiriting. (500) Days of Summer chronicles the relationship of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), two employees at a greeting card company with very different ideologies on love. Traveling back and forth in time throughout their 500 days together, pieces of their journey are steadily revealed to create a portrait of love at once wonderfully triumphant and agonizingly he... Read more

While watching '500 Days of Summer', directed by Marc Webb, at a film festival, I was slouching in my chair, with disgustingly stale popcorn, at a theatre that desperately needed a gutting, watching the Hampton-Type, Brown University and NYFA students parading around with their tote bags and blackberries, perusing the leafleat of films for the weekend, when I pondered, for a moment, after listening to this art-house, latte drinking stiff behind me, how Joseph Gordon-Levitt, was born in Newport (which btw he certainly was not) to his two Jeannene Garofalo looking friends, how simply stunning JGL is. Not just appearance wise, but how the camera, captured radiantly by Eric Steelberg (who certainly has a keen eye towards close-up emotions) seems to nail every subtle nuance of emotion and flare of his face, however understanding the humor and often dark side of love; but his (Levitt's) pure, raw talent of the characters he portrays and the very intense subject matter and films he chooses to... Read more

The film's opening makes it clear: This is not a love story. It is a story about love. Told in a non chronological fashion, we see 500 days in the relationship of Tom (Joseph Gordon- Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel). For those who have seen 10 Things I Hate About You, this is an evolution of that story told in a more realistic fashion. While Joseph Gordon-Levitt pretty much plays the same character, he adds gravitas to the ups and downs of relationships which all men go through at some point. Zooey Deschanel brings her playful carefree attitude to Summer, which the movie itself is quick to point out has a very strong effect over men. While most people expect this to be a love story, it's not. It's a carefully crafted story about relationships and the highs and lows we all experience and how we focus on the highs more than the lows. The quirky humor and the wittiness brought out in the film covers the very introspective dissection of a relationship. While the ending is somewhat expe... Read more