(500) Days of Summer

Witwiwo:

What: (500) Days of Summer

When: January 5, 2010.

How Long: 1 hour, 35 minutes. A tad short, but solid.

Where: At the Schley residence, actually. Watchin' a flick at home for once.

Why: Partially because Zooey Deschanel is the prettiest girl in showbiz. And I've heard only good things about it.

What I ate while I watched: Koolaid and Cheerios!

Director: Marc Webb

Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and (The Lovely) Zooey Deschanel.

Expectations: Very high, because of my appreciation of Zooey and zero-concession-praises of the film that I have heard.

Two Sentence Synopsis: Tom Hanson meets Summer Finn and falls for her, hard. The next 500 days of her presence in his life radically change his view on love and consequently, his life.

My Favorite Part or Quote was:

Vance: Lately your work has been a little off--

Tom: What do you mean?

Vance: Here's one you wrote the other day--"Roses are Red, Violets are Blue, F*ck You, whore."

How Fun It Was: Pretty good stuff throughout, the overall mood of the movie wasn't funny, but there were some pretty comical stuff.

The Positives: The storyline and directing was superb. Cutting between the various days in the relationship was a very effective touch. Just the way the movie was put together, the cutscenes and the music...all well done. That's what you get with an indie film though.

The Negatives: It has the potential to be a boring film. It can engage you well, but my father ended up walking out because the movie didn't make him care enough. So I can see how it could be boring. If you miss connecting with the story early, then yes, the movie will be a bore for ya.

The Theology, Philosophy, Morality or Application: It seemed to be mostly focused on the nature of love, and the different concepts we place around it--destiny, "the one," etc. I really like the closing narration: the narrator essentially said that Tom didn't believe in fate anymore...or he was at least pretty sure about it...and then proceeded to act contrarily to that. I did like how it affirmed fate in an back-handed way. Other than that, the tagline really nails the premise: "This is not a love story, it is a story about love."

One thing I learned: Love is not as easy to nail down as even I, the greatly wise one, had estimated. I've always considered that there is a complete and truthful definition of love out there, and I still do, but I am much less confident I know what that definition is. I really liked it when this bit came up:

Tom: I need to know that you're not gonna wake up in the morning and feel differently.

Summer: And I can't give you that. Nobody can.

Even if I don't necessarily agree.

The ending: I don't know if it could have been better. If it could, tell me how.

Go/Rent/Buy/Don't: Go rent it, now. If you don't want to keep watching it after 30 minutes, then by all means, don't let my review be the thing that keeps you watching.