Moon Minis - (500) Days of Summer

(500) Days of Summer

Two indie sweethearts meet by chance at a greeting card company and begin to explore their relationship with each other in this experimental rom-com from music video director Marc Webb. Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are charming and flawed enough to carry the problems of the film, but it is Gordon-Levitt who shines, perhaps partially because of his character's love-charmed personality. Deschanel plays a different breed of woman from her other roles, one who resents the tethers of falling in love and "uses" Gordon-Levitt as a friend with benefits.


(500) Days of Summer does use its share of quirky indie moments; boy and girl meet while listening to The Smiths, which, of course, is no surprise considering both of their interests. But the film also has a few genuinely inspiring moments, both in script-writing and experimentation. Utilizing a number of interesting techniques, including jumps forwards and backwards in time to highlight the good and the bad of remembering a failed relationship and side-by-side scenes juxtaposing each other, (500) Days of Summer stands out from the more traditional romantic comedies by never actually feeling like one. And on an even better note, the movie is realistic in approach.

Throughout, there's a subtle hint that the event we want, even hope, to happen will never come to fruition; that it was just not meant to be. The end might skirt the audience's upbeat ideas of love, but it also comes with a stronger, more emotional message than having the love succeed - the 500 days of Summer might end, but a true love warms forever.


(500) Days of Summer on Rotten Tomatoes