The best romantic comedy I've ever seen- And it's not even a love story!

Rating: 7/10 (17 August 2010)

*** out of (****)
Hollywood is typically known for throwing those nightmare inducing chick flicks that are heavily appalling to endure. How inconsistent, artificial, and non-relatable those pieces of drivel are. Take two A-list actors, a mammoth of a budget, heavy advertising, an A-list actor, and Hollywood automatically thinks those aspects make a decent film. Films these days have fallen so short of substance because of the unappealing character development, the paint-by-numbers plot, and the predictability level is off the charts. Shoot, even mentioning the aforementioned ways of Hollywood is already cliché and by-the-numbers in itself. Albeit, (500) Days of Summer is so shockingly realistic, that one may seem to think that in reality, one such romance would never end on such a hard punch to the abdomen. One would also predict that the film would come off as a pretentious, over-the-top mess that screams "desperate", just to appeal to the hipster crowd. Fortunately, (500) Days of Summer is so overbearingly real that it is a thousand times more relatable than any other romantic comedy you've ever seen. Also, how it manages to side skirt every "chick flick" cliché and comes off as anti-pretentious, is just remarkable. (500) Days of Summer is not just the best romantic comedy you'll ever see, but probably one of the best movies you'll see in the last five years.
(500) Days of Summer revolves around Tom (Levitt) who's outright admiration goes to Summer (Deschanel). Summer is like a pin point on a map that takes Tom's life to another adventure. Fortunately, Summer is Tom's "luck-be-lady-tonight" , although, things don't go as planned. Summer gives Tom a lecture on love and how artificial it is. How "love" is just a textbook topic that is a gimmick. However, Tom sees love in a different light and thinks it's a beautiful treasure. Albeit, Summer thinks Tom as a friend with benefits, while Tom thinks he has a bright future with Summer. Will the spotlight be panned on Tom or Summer?
The one of the many things that makes (500) Days of Summer play out like a commentary on life rather than a quick-buck cop-out, is the script. Just the dialog puts emphasis on how brutally honest this film is. The words the characters blurt out and the situations the characters encounter, is like a prime example of a documentary. Furthermore, the characters are just phenomenal. Their performances are so strong and realistic, it's like the viewer's life is projected onto the screen. To top it off, the film, stylistically, is a blast. The director uses a few tricks that are up his sleeves like the split screen. The film has a very "indie" feel to it. What's the icing on the cake, is the direction. This movie could have gone the inane and complete slap-in-the-face route, but it took the road less traveled by. Additionally, the soundtrack is just awe-inspiring. There's no cliché love songs or any mainstream sell-outs. Every music piece hits strong like a dodge ball does at a prepubescent kid in P.E. To add to that, the pacing is also flawless. No scenes feel tedious or too abrupt. Everything moves by at a rather smooth pace.
You know the times, whether prepubescent or adulthood, where a man has had a dream girl and thinks everything is going to be pinpointed on a map right in front of his face, although, things take a turn for the worst? (500) Days of Summer demonstrates the cold truth. The performances are raw, the script is rich with reality, and the direction is bold. This is what filmmakers should be doing. Instead, most romantic comedy directors are stuck in their sandbox love memories tinkering with their fantasy world, rather than reaching for the truth tinkering with reality. (500) Days of Summer is definitely a copy and paste of the average person's life, but I mean that in the greatest way. If there's only one romantic comedy you'll see this year, make sure it's this one.