A cautionary tale about love

Rating: 8/10 (6 April 2015)

Before I watched this movie I just was expecting a romcom - a standard slushy movie where boy meets girl over a summer period. I had no expectations of the film and sometimes that's always for the best. I was obviously very pleasantly surprised and then some.
It's made fairly clear from the outset that the two characters Tom Hansen and Summer Finn are destined to have their lives collide in some way. We see it built up through a selection of scenes that build up our sense of the apparent romance going on, but the crucial scene where Zooey Deschanel's character just wants friendship is the film's central and binding core.
As an audience member, you want the couple to become just that. The chemistry seems real, the scenes depicting it fool us into thinking perhaps it may still go somewhere (the IKEA scene with the two pretending that they have already settled down is an example). I related to his naivety in this hope that she will be won over sometime in the course of the casual dating. Gordon Levitt's performance is excellent - you can see in his eyes alone a desperation and desire that doesn't leave him throughout the film, but also a denial that he doesn't want to face the facts. I empathised and sympathised - not least because if someone like Summer Finn was dating you you would probably become exactly the fool he portrays. Her smile and mannerisms are hypnotic, and Zooey's acting seems natural, not forced, to back this up. A number of actresses could have easily overplayed the role, but she is subtle in the way she bounces off Gordon Levitt's moves and charms.
The countdown-of-the-days sequences and whistle-like cue weave perfectly into the story to lure us in to his naive obsession of his date and tempt us into believing the romance of the pair. My favourite part of the movie is probably when they reunite on the train, and during the sunset you don't hear the talking of the characters you just see their facial expressions, but critically you sense this meeting is setting up the finale of their dating, for better or worse. The Temper Trap song beginning to the visual of the last moments on the train is enchanting to the point where you want to be stuck in the moment and not leave it, in spite of all the warning of the story in the scenes before.
The romance lovers in the audience will have at this point been praying for Summer to decide she likes Tom enough to make it a long term relationship. The realists will realise the tragedy of this reunion and that the character who will suffer most is Tom.
When we're shown the reality and expectation split screen, most of us are watching the reality part, but really want to see the expectation happening. At the point of the ring reveal you can feel the heart being torn out of Tom's chest.....and if you've ever been a fool for love, this was a real heartbreaker of a moment that you would be able to relate to. This was actually the one part of the film where I think Zooey's character was a bit cruel. If you are casually dating someone for a long period at least, to not say anything about another involvement I think is harsh.....particularly by way of showing an engagement ring. Or at least I think so.
Anyway, back to the review - which is that this film achieves its purpose with the flying colours of a summer festival - to tell a cautionary tale of a one way love obsession, and not to forget the signs that it is, just that.