500 Days of Summer? That's Normal

Rating: 8/10 (2 December 2009)

500 Days of Summer? Big deal, I live in Phoenix, AZ. We have 500 days of summer every year.
Actually the little movie was a big deal. Currently, I am only awarding it 4/5 stars, however, I think this will be one that will grow on me. It's only been a short while since I've seen it, and I can't get it out of my mind.
That being said, it did fell forced at times, the side characters were only mildly amusing (his friends were good – not great, but his sister was so clichéd that she was almost hard to watch) and you can tell the movie it was trying to mimic in the opening with the outlined city (and then throughout.) Okay, if you couldn't tell, watch/re-watch the brilliant Juno.
In addition, I really want to say Gordon-Levitt did a great job and should be up for an Oscar nom. But, I can barely say he did a good job. He was trying to play a stuck-in-his-past (well, at all times) geek and though he got that down, no real depth or believability came from him. The movie really belonged solely to Deschanel.
She was perfect on many levels. Stole every scene, showed growth and depth consistently and had a perfect on screen persona, a genuine charisma that grabbed you as you got to know her. She deserves, at very least, an Oscar nomination for her real-life character.
Probably the majority of people go through relationships like Tom and Summer have. It's no spoiler that this relationship was doomed from day one (of 500 – obviously.) They tell you that less than a minute in. You want it to work out, you yearn for the nerd to get the free-bird (again, literally) girl. However, as previously mentioned, it was not meant to be and one of the most brilliant aspects was the revolution in the closing on why not.
I know I've been through a relationship like this. One party believes in fate, that one special, soul-mate (that's me, duh) while the other's skeptical and may not be the true "one." It does hurt that both me and Tom share more than the years in an office job trait – we're both nerds stuck in the past.
Nevertheless, back to the movie. We follow their relationship for 500 day, back and forth from day 42 to 303, then to 121. A lot of the comedy stems from these wonderful transitions. Such as, the fantastic dance segment to Tom's mood in another day of 500. (Side note: Spider-Man 3 did pretty much the same thing, following Peter Parker and in his mind a lovely stroll through the city and a vintage song playing. How did a movie that probably spent $500 million less get this kind of scene right?) Like I said before, some of this felt forced, including a Jerry Macguire blow up, but there were a lot of wonderful scenes, a lot of comedy that made me laugh out loud. It is an adult comedy, and even though most of the movie is pretty much "clear" (and "clean") of today's adult romcoms – i.e. any Paul Rudd/Seth Rogen/Adam Sandler features, it will remind you, you're not watching a PG-13 film.
I definitely would recommend this small movie to mass audiences, if not just for Deschanel. It was refreshing to see an original spin on the romantic movies of current years. A movie that puts a lot of 1970-80s references to people my age (or Tom's and Summer's) without shoving it down our throats.