(500) Days Of Summer Film Review
Rom-com Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel
Sep 8, 2009
(500) Days Of Summer chronicles the 500 day relationship between Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Deschanel). The film opens with the end of the relationship, the moment at which Tom has reached his nadir, and the narrative then sifts through various moments throughout their 500 days.
Tom's seemingly incurable despair rises from the fact that he is a hopeless romantic; a firm believer in the concept of a dream girl and an unspeakably idyllic love. Summer is Tom's dream girl: a Smiths fan, beautiful - and through Tom's romanticised memory - an entrancing bohemian, living life with a freedom Tom himself desires. As (500) Days Of Summer continues to move through the various aspects of their relationship, Summer's perfect veneer begins to crack.
Annie Hall
(500) Days Of Summer has been described by various sources as a 'Generation Y retread of Annie Hall (1977)' (Kate Stables' Sight and Sound review, September 2009 issue) due to its jumbled time structure and critical view of relationships. The film clearly has these echoes of Woody Allen's Oscar-winner, but more so it shares the same - and rare - viewpoint of looking at the crumbled couple through the eyes of the man.
Romantic comedies normally focus on the female half of the equation, with the male suitor reduced to a hunky and idealised heartthrob or a brutish and uncaring man who undergoes a change of character before the close of the film. With Tom in (500) Days Of Summer and Alvy in Annie Hall, the male is the one hurt, the half of the couple whose emotions have been through the grinder and is in a state of despair and hopelessness.
Both characters create a heightened image of their women in their heads, convincing themselves that they have found the love of their life, and no woman would ever compare again. Allen's way with a witty one-liner prevents Alvy from becoming an unlikeable character, and Gordon-Levitt's boyish charm ensures Tom is always sympathetic.
The main difference between (500) Days Of Summer and Annie Hall lies in the resolution of their predicaments. Annie Hall closes with a reasonably happy ending, Alvy and Annie becoming friends again, and Alvy's bruised outlook on relationships rehabilitated, if still struck through with cynicism. Tom, however, has his romantic notions of love reignited by meeting another girl, who seems an even better match for him than Summer. That (500) Days Of Summer concerns twenty-somethings and Annie Hall thirty-somethings may have an impact on the more optimistic denouement of the former.
Zooey Deschanel
Deschanel gives a more subtle performance of Summer than expected, her usual kooky charm underpinned with a more distant and cold subtext. Despite Tom's obvious devotion, Summer repeatedly informs him that she does not want a relationship, but seems reluctant to leave him to find what she wants. That Summer ultimately betrays everything she has claimed to believe in comes as a crushing blow to Tom - and underlines the idea that she was not the dream girl he had believed her to be.
The concept of Summer as the ideal woman and their relationship as one of bliss and shared interests is weighted by Webb's joyful manipulation of the form of film. After Tom's first real success with Summer, he is seen dancing through LA, with bystanders joining in and an animated bird adding the final touch. Whilst humorous, it is a keen visualisation of the thoughts recurrent in a generation that thinks through film references.
Webb also plays with visual styling to convey the growing realisation of Summer's flaws. A poignant scene sees Tom invited to a party thrown by Summer shortly after their breakup, and the screen splits in two to show on one side his expectations of the evening (in which he spends the entire party by Summer's side before they literally kiss and make up) whilst the other shows the reality, where he is left on his own to watch Summer break his heart.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Following the indie success of Brick (2005) and his recent appearance in the blockbuster G.I. Joe: The Rise Of Cobra, Joseph Gordon-Levitt steals (500) Days Of Summer with his awkward and charming performance which, allied with the hip-as-can-be soundtrack and portrayal of a relationship known too well to the film's target audience, makes the film a guaranteed success.
More hopeful and occasionally cliched than the Annie Hall its marketing is determined to ally it with, (500) Days Of Summer proved a hit at Sundance and is likely to aid Gordon-Levitt on his rise to stardom.
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