Thursday Night at the Movies - (500) Days of Summer

This movie came out in August 2009 but we missed it in the theaters. I recently noticed in on cable and utilizing the DVR magic box, recorded it for my wife and I to watch. It starred Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom and Zooey Daschanel as Summer.It's your basic boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-finds-girl-again-but-by-this-time-he's-lost-her for-good story. Tom, who thinks there is the 'right' girl out there for him, meets Summer, and soon believes she is that right girl. Summer doesn't believe in the concept of love and tells him that right up front. But Tom falls for her anyway and eventually things get too much for Summer and she leaves. Not only leaves him but quits the job where they both work and cuts off all contact. Some months later they meet quite accidentally on the way to the wedding of a mutual friend and have a great time together. She invites him to a party at her place but after awhile at the party Tom finally realizes it's really over and goes home.

What was interesting to me about the movie is the non-linear story telling. It presents various days from their relationship with numbered title screens. But although there is a lot of jumping about, the story moves through the 500 days eventually, And of course, not every day is shown. In what relationship does something importantly happen every day? Often a scene at a later day is followed by an earlier day where some small happening prefigures the event in the later day.

The actors are very good. I know nothing about Gordon-Levitt, although now that I look him up on IMDB, I see I have seen him before, most recently in Inception. I've only seen Deschanel once before, in Shyamalan's The Happening.

What I really liked about the movie, however, was its realness. Tom and Summer seemed like real people who I could understand. There was none of the contrived events you often see in romantic comedies.

One of my favorite scenes was the party. There is an occasional voice-over narrator in the movie. As Tom is approaching Summer's apartment, the narrator says something like "We'll see how Tom's expectations match reality". And the screen splits in two. The left is labeled "Tom's Expectations", the right is labeled "Reality". For example, when Summer answers the door, Tom's Expectations shows Summer smiling, glad to see Tom and giving him a big hug and a big kiss, but the reality is that she's glad he's come but only gives him a slight peck on the cheek. And so it goes. I can't speak for every guy out there (and certainly not for any woman out there), but I'm sure we've all been there. I've certainly experienced similar situations in that long ago age when I was single and dating.

The soundtrack for the film was pretty good as well and featured two Regina Spektor songs. If you don't know her check back on Sunday when I will feature one of the songs from the movie.