500 Days of Summer (2009)

Directed by: Marc Webb
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt

****1/2

Movies are a lot like relationships. While never perfect, if they have the right combination of elements they can work perfectly. So often however, movies and relationships lack something that result in them failing in some way. If Summer (Zooey Deschanel) were writing this review, she'd be sure to find something wrong to prevent herself from loving it. Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) on the other hand, likely wouldn't even need to finish watching before falling in love with it. Well, I'm certainly not Summer, and as much as I want to be Tom, I can't say I quite reached that point.

I walked away from Marc Webb's 500 Days of Summer feeling both disappointed and excited. I was disappointed that the movie fell just short of being perhaps my favorite of the year and excited that it makes that conversation. In short, I really did love this movie. Joseph Gordon-Levitt (in the top performance of the year so far) is Tom, who writes greeting cards for a living. His passion is for architecture but like so many before him, life got in the way. When he falls for Summer, despite her insistence that they are just friends, Tom's ideals of fate and destiny are strengthened. His relationship with Summer creates the life that he believes he was meant to live. Summer's differing opinion is what causes that life to crumble all around him.

So much of this movie works and works perfectly. The opening narration tells us that it is a story of boy meets girl but its not a love story. This is true but at the same time, the ups and downs of the story stir up the same emotions that any relationship can. Summer is that Penny Lane, Fran Kubelik, impossible to ignore type of character that makes us want her and Tom to be together so much that its hard when we learn that "she doesn't want anything serious." Summer, afterall, doesn't believe in love. She didn't misinterpret "The Graduate" the way Tom did...

Deschanel's portrayal of Summer is spot on. Her character arch is so seemless and we, like Tom, are so close to her, we don't even notice. It's discouraging to not know what exactly happens to Summer during her arch. We find out after and its difficult to accept which has nothing to do with the nature of what's happened to her. We are as involved as Tom and not being a part of what happens to her is painful.

This movie has five-star review written all over for so much of it. The very few small misses are the only thing that kept it from acheiving that. Tom's younger sister was kind of a swing and miss. Her first appearence was ironic and humorous but she didn't work for the entire film. The split screen shot comparing Tom's expecations with his reality worked really well, but the reality of the scene fell far short of my expectations for its payoff. And not to give anything away, (not that I could) but the final scene of the film just didn't feel as real as the rest of the film. But that doesn't matter. The characters, their relationships and the story of this film are so real, I almost welcomed a little suspension of disbelief.

500 Days of Summer is about love, fate, friendship and life. All these elements combined themselves to make a movie that works almost perfectly. Whether or not they made a working relationship between Tom and Summer... well, you'll just have to see for yourself.