(500) Days of Summer Review

Do you remember that 90’s “Saturday Night Live” skit in which Mike Myers played Streisand-loving “Coffee Talk” host Linda Richman and every once in while he/she’d say something like “Talk amongst yourselves. Here’s a topic: butterscotch is neither butter or scotch. Discuss.”

Well, not to go all Linda Richman on you, but here’s a topic: today’s romantic comedies are rarely romantic or comedic. Discuss.

Maybe it’s just me and maybe I’m just missing the good ones. However, it appears to me that most of today’s “chick flicks” seem more concerned with detachedly examining the mechanics of modern relationships (“He’s Just Not That Into You”) or adhering to a predictable (yet crowd-pleasing) formula than with actually enchanting an audience and making them laugh/think/feel. Then again, I’m the guy who called “Wall-E” the best love story in years, so I probably have a quirkier eye for love stories than most.

Ok, this is all my fancy, self-indulgent way of saying that you should see “(500) Days of Summer,” the best romantic comedy in years and my favorite movie of 2009.

All this despite the fact that the narrator tells us at the very beginning that this is NOT a love story - and he’s not lying.

The movie chronicles the year-and-a-half relationship between greeting card writer and hopeless romantic Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), the girl who shares his taste in indie music and doesn’t believe in love.

This is director Marc Webb’s first movie, and I’d actually count it among the most impressive feature film debuts in recent years. The movie’s main conceit – telling the story of Tom and Summer’s 500-day relationship out of order – could be seen as gimmicky, but I think it works because when people look back at relationships they don’t often recount them in chronological order. (This is where I pause to give credit to co-writers Scott Neudstadter and Michael H. Weber for their brilliant script.) Jumping around also allows a bit of melancholy to creep into the movie’s early moments, while also adding a dash of welcome humor and optimism to the inevitable downer of a second half.

Webb also throws in a few tricks (a joyous musical number after Tom and Summer’s first night together, a French arthouse cinema parody) that might be annoying to some people, but are right in my wheelhouse. The best is a beautiful and heartbreaking split-screen sequence showing how reality and Tom’s expectations don’t align.

Let me talk about Joseph Gordon-Levitt for a paragraph or two. He’s always been good, hasn’t he? He was good as a child/teen actor (“Angels in the Outfield”, “3rd Rock from the Sun”, “10 Things I Hate About You”) and he’s earned plenty of respect in recent years as a film actor (“Mysterious Skin”, “Brick”, “The Lookout”).

However, “500 Days” is really the first time I’ve really seen him as a leading MAN. He’s still a young leading man (the boyish face remains), but the heartbreak, humor, insecurity and passion he brings to this character adds up to a truly star-making performance for a guy who was already VERY good.
Of course, I don’t want to shortchange Zooey Deschanel. The thing with Zooey Deshcanel is that you’re pretty much always going to get the same wide-eyed, slightly-detached, vaguely ironic indie rock chick performance no matter what movie she’s in. (Even if people are dying all around her like in “The Happening.”) It just so happens that she’s absolutely perfect in this role. Summer is totally honest with Tom regarding her (non)feelings on love from the very beginning, but Deschanel still manages to make the character utterly irresistible. Best use of Zooey Deschanel EVER.

This being a rom-com and all, there ARE a couple of lively supporting performances to be enjoyed. Geoffrey Arend is funny as Tom’s karaoke-loving co-worker. On the other hand, though Chloe Moretz scores some laughs as Tom’s tough-talking younger sister, her character was the only one in the movie that didn’t ring true for me. It felt like the writers were stretching for cheap chuckles.

However, that’s just a minor complaint in a movie that gets SO much right about relationships. One of those things is the idea that, in real life, there are often times where a guy is more into a girl than she is into him. “500 Days” also sneakily subverts the audience’s expectation that just because two characters are the male and female leads they should (or HAVE to) end up together.
The narrator turns out to be right – this is NOT a love story. The beauty of “(500) Days of Summer” is that, by the end, I desperately wanted it to be.

(500) Days of Summer…A