Movie of the Day – (500) Days of Summer

God Lord there is just too much awkward cuteness and indie sweetness to be contained in one singular film.  It’s unfair to the audience to not only watch the irresistible Zooey Deschanel being the indie darling that she is, but also watching the folksy, often befuddling Joseph Gordon-Levitt in a movie together is just almost too much to handle.  Hell, having both of them together in a movie means that we have to like it.  Long story short, I do adore this movie.  I am a hopeless romantic in some ways, which is funny when people who know me say I am crass and irreverent at times.  Hey, I can’t help it sometimes but movies like (500) Days of Summer are some of the best romantic comedies around.  Way better than the crap that gets pushed out now that barely passes for believable romantic elements.  So while I am going to where my heart on my sleeve this time around, (500) Days of Summer is nothing but irresistible.

Tom (Gordon-Levitt) is an aspiring architect who currently earns his living as a greeting card writer. Upon encountering his boss’ beautiful new secretary, Summer (Deschanel), Tom discovers that the pair have plenty in common despite the fact that she’s seemingly out of his league; for starters, they both love the Smiths, and they’re both fans of surrealist artist Magritte. Before long Tom is smitten. All he can think about is Summer. Tom believes deeply in the concept of soul mates, and he’s finally found his. Unfortunately for Tom, Summer sees true love as the stuff of fairy tales, and isn’t looking for romance. Undaunted and undeterred by his breezy lover’s casual stance on relationships, Tom summons all of his might and courage to pursue Summer and convince her that their love is real. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Just reading this synopsis already has you putting together the indie soundtrack to the film.  At least for me it did anyways the first time I saw the trailer.  Heck I wish they would have included more Hall and Oates in the film, but that is just a pipe dream.  Anyways, check out the soundtrack is what I am getting at here.

I often comment on Romantic films needing to have an air of realism to the story.  Often times that romantic comedies that I have been dragged to in my pat relationships have always been about the story from the woman’s perspective, usually a super successful woman needing to change the ways of some amorphous blob of a man who has no ambitions in life into the man of her dreams (Failure to Launch comes to mind) or my favorite romantic trope, the gorgeous woman is so awkward and unpretty with glasses and tossled hair, goes after the man of her dreams, which is easily attainable for her if she just puts on a dress and ditches those nerd glasses.  It’s pandering really and not the sort of relationships that people have.  Unless of course you are a successful magazine editor, book writer, advertising executive, upscale graphic designer, woman working in an all male business, or fashion designer.  If you fall into those careers fields, then those previous movies I mentioned will have more meaning to you.

While I got off on a tangent for a brief moment, it was to contrast two different points with this movie today and all those others rom-coms out there.  One is that we are getting this from the point of view of Tom, the male protagonist in the film.  We don’t really see the pursuit of the love interest from the  male perspective since the usual romance movies are more chick porn than anything else.  A charismatic lead like Gordon-Levitt pulls the audience into his dilemma of pining for the girl he loves and brings along in his quest.  Gordon-Levitt brings a wholesome portrayal to Tom, a person that I can relate to, and his emotionally charged journey for the elusive love of Summer, another protagonist/antagonist who is the opposite of what the preconceived notions are for a romantic comedy.

This leads me into the second point of contention, the love interest.  I am not saying that women can’t be a love interest for guys in a movie, but typically they are more of the damsel in distress sort of love interest that can only be had after dispatching thousands of ill-trained men in combat.  Summer, played by the stunning Zooey Deschanel (God those eyes of her are mesmerizing) who is not the typical love interest that romantic comedies focus on.  She is a stronger character than most, not tied down by the restraints of conventional relationship norms that some females follow in romance films.  She is a character that doesn’t believe in true love, which is a bit of a shock since most of the movies that are out there paints women as being the ones who believe in true love and hence motivate them to seek it out with the male lead. Zooey is wonderful to watch on screen, seemingly flowing from scene to scene, just close to being attainable by Tom but just out of reach.  She presents a good folly for Tom and gives us a honest perspective on love and relationships.

(500) Days of Summer aims for something higher with this story, one that flips the perspective of love and relationships, but I am not saying that this movie rewrote the book on romantic comedies.  It still has all the trappings of the usual romance movies, but a quirky and often hipsterish take on the matter.  The couple meets, they share interests, they go out, they share memories, they fall out of love, and they try to reconcile.  Then again, that is what a lot of relationships are like.  It isn’t something that is unique, but honest portrayal of their tale of love and woe counts for a lot of things.  It’s a fantastic, clever and upbeat film, even with the sad tribulations that poor Gordon-Levitt goes through.  Both of the actors characters are believable as Gordon-Levitt being the hopeless romantic and Zooey being the aloof, free-spirited character to which she doesn’t believe in the conventional belief of true love.  This could have felt like just another romantic comedy movie, but taking a fresh approach to the genre and casting loveable leads in the titular roles makes it have more than just surface appeal.  A deep story and quirky way of recapping their relationship in a non-linear storytelling fashion, enhances the fractured mind of the recently dumped, going back through the memories of his relationship to make sense of it all.  I feel for you Joesph, I really do man.

Overall, I love this movie.  I am even a person who isn’t that into romantic comedies since they are banal and mind numbing to the point that my eyes will become disconnected and fall out of my head due to the incessant eye-rolling.  But since I have been doing this blog for not even a year a now, I find myself being a bit more open to the romance genre with unconventional portrayals for love, unconventional meaning actual honest portrayals of relationships instead of the garbage that passes for romance these days.  It’s great to see the two young leads in a film that captures the highs and lows of relationships, even making you reflect on past loves and spurned memories.  I would go as far as to couple both this movie and Like Crazy as being the quintessential movies that a young generation should watch.  The leads are amazing, the story is just the right amount of heart and quirkiness to not make it seems forced and it’s enjoyable.  You want to see what happens next and even the ending gives you a smile about the next chapter in their lives.

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