Joseph Gordon-Levitt (left) appears in (500) Days of Summer as an ordinary guy in love with an extraordinary girl, played by Zooey Deschanel (right). Fox Searchlight via Bloomberg/Chuck Zlotnick
The film (500) Days of Summer is wonderful. It's amazing. It's smart and funny. My gosh, I'm running out of adjectives to describe this film.
The film tells the story of Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a somewhat ordinary young man and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), a somewhat extraordinary young woman and their 500-day romance. So what makes the film different from other love stories?
Uncomplicated, stomach-churning story? Check. Two lovable leads? Check. Wonderful shots of moments that rarely happen in real life? Check. Conversations about love, one side pessimistic, one optimistic? Check. Spontaneous declarations of love, breakups accompanied with great background music, supportive best friends with funny one-liners? Check.
Well, that's everything. And the two characters? Tom is not just an ordinary young man. He's an artist. He wants to be an architect but for various reasons, he ends up as a greeting-card writer.
He loves obscure bands and believes in love. He's smart and unselfconscious; he's the nice guy. He's looking for The One, but not just anyone: a girl who's different.
Summer is definitely not an ordinary young woman. She's a free spirit, more than an artist. She's bigger than life. She's not searching for freedom. She has freedom. She believes in life and having fun, and boredom brought her to the same greeting-card company as Tom.
Tom and Summer, individually and together, immerse themselves in obscure bands, literature, cult films and lesser-known venues in Los Angeles, where they live. They live in some sort of bubble, surrounded only by well-chosen supporting characters whose every sentence drips with satire, such as Tom's best friends or Tom's rather wise younger sister.
Then there are the pop culture references. Tom and Summer bond over their mutual love of alternative-noir 1980s band The Smiths, with its dark, smart lyrics - and their entire non-relationship relationship is accompanied throughout by Belle & Sebastian's folk rock tunes, and other newer, still lesser-known, bands such as Mumm-Ra and Vagabond.
Their entire conversations are filled with spontaneous expressions of freedom (the famous "penis" scene), discussions over the ignorance of society ("Can you believe not many people know about Spearmint?") and even a comparison of their relationship with famous dead punk couple, Sex Pistol's Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.
And then of course, there is the less than orthodox fast-paced and non-chronological narration. The film jumps from day 400-something to day 1, to day 30-something to day 200-something and so on and so on, showing how Tom and Summer first met, first talked, first had a real conversation about love and beliefs, first kissed, first went out, first played house in Ikea.
Summer's refusal to commit and Tom's passionate belief in fate nicely subverts classic love stories with the notion that it's not always the woman who wants to define or even have the relationships.
Although it will make you want to scream in frustration (or whine, because no one can scream at Summer's adorable expressions) or cry, witnessing Tom's unhealthy post-breakup reaction, the whole concept itself is empowering, and you have to admire Summer's guts in living life the way she believes it should be in this age when conservative ideals still linger.
But yes, Tom and Summer are much lovelier and livelier together than apart.
They are everywhere in your life. He's the boy sitting in the back of the class, drawing and staring out the window. She's the girl in the park you always walk past, who hums lovely tunes, reads books and actually understands them. Maybe their names aren't Tom and Summer, but they are everywhere.
(500) Days of Summer is their story. It's a little bit different. They listen to lesser-known music, and compare themselves to long-deceased rock stars. Their hairstyles are a little bit old-fashioned (and that's the way they like it) and they argue over which Beatle is the best. But there's laughter, love and beliefs. These are things you understand, these are things they understand. And for once, we all have one thing in common.
(500) Days of Summer is screening at Blitzmegaplex on Dec. 9 and 11 as part of JiFFest. Organizers said it would also replace Balibo on Dec. 6 and 10. See www.blitzmegaplex.com.
(Five out of five stars.)
(500) Days of Summer
(Sneak Preview Entertainment, 95 min)
Directed by Mark Webb
Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend
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