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Genre: Comedy/Romance
Director: Marc Webb
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Clark Gregg, Minka Kelly, Matthew Gray Gubler, Rachel Boston, Geoffrey Arend, Chloe Moritz
RunTime: 1 hr 35 mins
Released By: 20th Century Fox
Rating: PG
Official Website: www.foxmovies.com.sg
Opening
Day: 8 October 2009
Synopsis:
This is a story of boy meets girl, begins the wry, probing narrator of (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, and with that the film takes off at breakneck speed into a funny, true-to-life and unique dissection of the unruly and unpredictable year-and-a-half of one young man’s no-holds-barred love affair.
Tom,
the boy, still believes, even in this cynical modern world,
in the notion of a transforming, cosmically destined, lightning-strikes-once
kind of love. Summer, the girl, doesn’t.
Not at all. But that doesn’t stop Tom from going
after her, again and again, like a modern Don Quixote, with
all his might and courage. Suddenly, Tom is in love not just
with a lovely, witty, intelligent woman – not that
he minds any of that -- but with the very idea
of Summer, the very idea of a love that still has the power
to shock the heart and stop the world.
Movie Review:
It’s never easy getting over a break up. Especially
if you are the one that’s still harboring hopes for
the relationship or care more about the other party. (500)
days of summer is one such story of a boy who fell in love
with a girl that he can’t get over and it’s told
in such a delightfully fluffy yet painfully accurate manner
that it’s actually fun to sit thru the boy’s ups
and downs of a relationship that is doomed from the start.
In a whimsically flashback manner, we were introduced the
girl Summer and the boy Tom. We got to know how they met,
their individual characteristic and how their love sparkles
between them. This movie was able to draw out both of their
winsome quirkiness that made them quite endearing in their
own ways.
Here we have Tom, the protagonist who recounting his days
spent with Summer at the end of their relationship. We witness
how Tom fall in love with Summer and had the most blissful
moments in his life. Then on the other, we see his pain as
he had to deal with the sudden void in his life.
It would be easy to write Summer off as a uncaring bitch who
tore the poor protagonist’s heart out. The differences
here would be that the character’s more multi-layered
and more realistic. Her words might be downright cruel but
it’s more beneficial for both parties in the long run
and more attuned to the real world.
What made this movie about love and breakup even more special
was though the use of fanciful film making tricks to tell
the story.
The non chorological method of telling the story provided
a great way to contrast the blissful moments from the dreadful
moments of a relationship. It uses similar situation to illustrate
how things changes when one party is no longer attracted to
the other. It’s applicable to real life as that how
we usually recall about our past. People seldom recall things
in a chorological manner and it’s often things that
matter that pop in our mind. It also uses split screen effects
to contrast the difference between expectation and reality.
Folks who had their idealized date falling apart will be able
to relate to this segment.
In closing, after a discussion with a friend, we agreed that
to a degree, almost everyone would have been a Tom and Summer
at some part of their life. We might have our hearts broken
into pieces but we might also have broken other’s heart
somewhere along the way. It’s not an easy process to
get by but that’s life. Some might just hide the issue
and get by while the braves one would do the right thing for
a relationship.
It’s also about coming to terms with idealizing relationship
and the other half. In reality, it does not often match up
with what’s been idealized and how do we cope with it?
There’s no easy answer for it but (500) days of summer
showcase a fun and imaginative journey in dealing with it.
Movie Rating:
(An odyssey of falling in love and surviving an achy breakup)
Review by Richard Lim Jr
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