imperfect, but it's more alive than 500+ romantic comedies

Rating: 9/10 (3 August 2009)

Too often in American movies with romance and comedy, sometimes not in that order and sometimes (if not enough at all) take the romance and personal consequences of a relationship seriously, we're made to feel as an audience by the BS of Hollywood formulas that we should like the characters even when they're wrong or stupid or, on more than one occasion, sociopaths. The pleasure of (500) Days of Summer is that it doesn't tell us how to think or feel about this couple, Tom and Summer. Indeed it would be quite unfair to make us just automatically like a guy who has had the 'first-love-forever' notion since childhood and the girl being one without any real solid core of emotions that one can really connect to. It's much to complex, and by the end we simply understand the both of them, which is all that a movie about two people in a relationship- well, let's not "label" it, I guess- should try to accomplish.
But more than that, (500) Days of Summer is one of those rare contemporary movies that taps into the ups and downs of a heart-breaker. One could compare it to that other masterful/somber "hipster" opus (must use quotes since I can't verify it for sure) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. While the latter had a genius at the helm in Michel Gondry, the director here, Marc Webb, is not one to scoff at, either, at least as a real formidable creative talent whom I can't wait to see more of. He and his co-writer develop this story of Tom and Summer in a manner that one can see the whole 'what-went-wrong' thing in their relationship. But it's pretty clear, actually, from the start: Tom is very interested, probably more than just as a friend, while Summer says 'let's not label things' and just be friends. This is code, to be sure, but Tom doesn't read it, and why should he? It is, at least for him, walking on sunshine with Summer... at least, for the first couple hundred days or so.
It's imaginative storytelling and solid character development. These are the bedrocks that make this film so impressive. All one can ask for are two characters who can engage us, in every moment that one would want for a three-dimensional picture. It's been argued already that since the film is mostly (save for a couple of third-person narrator bits) from Tom's point of view, we don't really get to know Summer on the same level. This isn't really true, it's just that they're different people to tap into, but also have been established at the start of the film like comic-book characters with their powers: Tom watched the Graduate as a kid and got the wrong idea by the ending, while Summer kept cutting her hair and wondering why it didn't hurt. One is love-sick and twisted by the promise of fate, and the other is pleasant and fun on the shallow surface and underneath is cold and bottled up and without much one can see of anything of a real connection (a key scene is when Tom and Summer go to see the Graduate together, and Summer sobs at the end with Benjamin and Elaine on the bus- ponder over it when the movie ends).
But, aside from all of those ponderous and inquisitive beats about the nature of connectedness with people, of liking or loving or just realizing what one does with their lives as meaningless or with meaning, it's a superbly entertaining piece of pop excitement. It's not a full-on laugh out loud affair, but it doesn't need to be. We already have the characters, and their non-linear track of things as they come, and the filmmakers go for an approach to heighten whatever moods are on display. Take the truly awesome and hilarious 'musical' number with Tom dancing in the street with a whole squad behind him to Hall & Oates. Or, on a more personal-taste level (my favorite scene in the movie as a comedy), when Tom goes to the movie on his own and sees the French New Wave scene merge into the parodies of Persona and Seventh Seal.
And, on top of this, the style, which could be dubbed as 'quirky' by those who can't find a better word like 'inventive' or 'smart' or forbid 'wonderful', is Webb's attentiveness to the style as reflects a scene with the camera and editing. This goes beyond just some cheeky-clever student film thing. When we see, for example, when Tom goes to the party that (ex) Summer invites Tom to, very unfairly indeed, and we see the split-screen of the Fantasy and the Reality of the scene, with a movement of the camera to fill the whole frame when the reveal in Reality comes crashing down for Tom (it's a twist that isn't a big spoiler since it's at the start of the film), it's not one of those gimmicks unearned. (500) Days of Summer is a fresh blast that is thoughtful and endearing, and never for a second spoon-feeds the audience. It doesn't give us characters to always like, but its honesty makes us feel for them (even Summer) more than any other rom-com this season. Autumn, on the other hand...