The film stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom, and Zoey Deschanel as Summer.
I only first watched (500) Days of Summer a few months ago, when I was highly bored in my diggs and had generally nothing better to do.
My expectations of this film were pretty low, as much as I loved Zoey Deschanel, I'm not one for 'love story' type films which I thought this was.
How wrong I was.
With one line in the narrative introduction of the movie being "...you should know upfront, this in not a love story".
Even after hearing this line i still wasn't overly convinced that it wasn't a typical boy-meets-girl romantic movie. After all, the opening scene was of day 488 and the pair touching hands, with Summer wearing a wedding ring.
I felt this film was the opposite to the average romantic comedy drama movie, as it was the male (Tom) that was the protagonist of the film. Tom is the one who strongly believes in love, who becomes obsessed with Summer, a girl who doesn't believe in love, or labels such as 'girlfriend', opposed to the traditional 'norm' of these genres of movies being the female who is looking for love, falling for the guy.
I really liked the start of this film, by it starting with the couple breaking up.
The film then goes back to day one, when Tom met Summer and his love for her began.
The line "Why is it pretty girls think they can treat people like crap and get away with it?" spoken by Tom, brought a little smirk to my face as generally women think the same about guys, that the really hot ones tend to be assholes.
I found it a little strange that Zoey wasn't a highly likable character in this film, compared to the majority of her movies where she plays a lead character, and also that she isn't her usual quirky self. However I did feel that that fit better with her character of being somewhat an antagonist in this film.
Elements of quirkiness were there when relaying jokes and humour in the film. Whether this was down to the script or director, or whether it was the actors themselves I don't know, but I like to think that it was the actors.
When watching the days before the break-up, I sort of forgot that they broke up! I got so caught up in the romance between the too in the beginning of the 'relationship' that I had entirely forgotten that they do eventually broke up. Which had my mind wondering all sorts about what could make them break up because they seemed so great together, specially in the Ikea scene.
I have a few favourite scenes in this movie. The first one being when Tom and Summer are at a bar for a works do, of which there is karaoke. Tom is pretty drunk by this point and is heckled/encouraged by Summer to get up and sing. Before this point the only other film I remember Joseph from was 10 Things I Hate About You, and I was unaware he could actually sing. Sure is this scene he cant sing great as his character is drunk, but you realise he can definitely carry a tune. After watching this film I surfed around on Youtube and found a duet of Zoey and Joseph which I absolutely fell in love with! He has such a great voice.
(Watch it Here)
One of my favourite quotes in the movie comes from Paul (Toms friend) and Tom himself, which goes like this;
Paul : "Did you bang her?"
Tom: "No."
Paul: "What, humjob?"
Tom: "No."
Paul: "Handjob?"
Tom: "Mane, no. No jobs, I'm still unemployed."
It may not sound as funny out of context, but when watching the film I found it quite laugh worthy.
Another one of my favourite scenes is on Day 34, when Tom and Summer are walking around in Ikea, and are pretending to be a husband and wife in their own home. I found this scene really cute, and made me think like Tom, that they are perfect for each other. It also made me want to go to Ikea and do exactly the same thing! At the end of this scene I had all sorts of questions running around in my head, as Summer holds Toms hand. I was thinking, "Does this mean she has feelings for him? Is she falling for him?".
But my favourite scene is the one that follows Day 34 (Ikea scene). The pair have just had sex and Tom walks to work with the biggest smile on his face, and with a general 'lust for life' attitude. Then he goes into a dance number to Hall & Oates 'You Make My Dreams Come True'. It truly is a spectacular scene in the movie, and it really expresses his happiness, in a way that words cant describe, of how he feels about the fact he has finally got the girl of his dreams. The video for the dance number is Here if you care to watch it.
The days, in this film, don't go in order. For example, following the dance of scene of day 35 is day 303. I loved this about the film as one minute a scene would be really happy and romantic, then in a second its a day after the break up where Tom is really depressed and melancholy. This aspect of the movie really toyed with my emotions with using such quick transitions between extremities of emotion.
I felt Joseph's performance in this film was great, specially during the post break-up scenes showing the emotional downfall of his character, showing him falling further and further into misery and depression, and how it starts to ruin his life.
The scene of expectations vs. reality is such a great scene. I just loved the idea of splitting the screen to show how different things can turn out compared to how you want them to, and imagine them to go.
I felt this image was really strong in the movie, as he is standing alone with everything around him erased. The lyric 'no-one gets it all' plays alongside this image, and it is at a part when his entire world has just been shattered. I felt it was a really emotional part in the movie as you really empathise and sympathise with Tom at this point more than any.
I don't want to say too much about the end of this film, because I don't want to give to much away! But it was a really strange scene in a sense that i had mixed emotions. I still felt sorry for Tom, but at the same time I felt happy, as he had gotten his life back on track and was happy himself again.
I also loved the moment on the bench, where the pair seem to exchange roles and swap beliefs, in a sense, compared to the beginning of the movie.
My overall rating for this film is 7/10:
I thought the acting from both Joseph and Zoey were brilliant, which was aided by a good storyline with added quirkiness. A different take on the normal romantic comedy and a joy to watch.
Note: A fun little added bonus is a video of Zoey and Joseph dancing to one of her songs, which was also made by Mark Webb, who directed (500) Days of Summer. You can watch it Here
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