500 Days of Summer (2009)
500 Days of Summer(USA) Directed by Marc Webb. Written by Scott Neustadter; Michael H. Weber. Starring Joseph Gordon- Levitt; Zooey Deschanel; Clark Gregg; Minka Kelly; Chloe Moretz; Geoffrey Arend; Matthew Gray Guber
Perhaps it’s a measure of the individual and collective strength and appeal of actors Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt that a film with several major, obvious missteps can wind up being as mostly successful as this one. Taking its cue from the template for all creatively structured romantic comedies to follow, Annie Hall, and following the lead of other recent young love stories containing well measured lumps of sweetness like Nick and Nora; Juno; Adventureland, and Garden State, 500 Days of Summer follows two late twenty-somethings into the abyss of a failed relationship.
Right off the bat we are told this is not a love story, although, in fact, it is one in a way - just not an ultimately successful one (the relationship that is, not the film itself). Gordon-Levitt is Tom, a greeting card writer who once aspired to be an architect, working for the same company as secretary Summer (Deschanel), new to town and adamantly (she explicitly states more than once) not looking for a relationship or anything serious. We are told in the beginning by the deep voiced, unidentified omniscient narrator that Summer is the type of girl who is average, but not usual, and we are given a series of semi-comic examples of her vast appeal to men. Dressed in her usual array of vintage outfits, Deschanel, She and Him member and indie cinema darling, is her standard appealing self, slightly aloof, vaguely monotone, though pleasingly attractive, cooly smart, and of course, hip.
In this pairing, Tom is the traditionally female character in that he is in love pretty much from jump street and therefore wants nothing more than to commit to Summer. As we are privy to his initial longing and angling to get close to her, as well as some of the far off places his imagination travels to, we know just how much he digs her, even as he puts forth his best efforts to play it cool when they are together. The fractured time frame has us jumping around the beginning, middle, and end of their relationship and beyond (day 2; day 147, etc.). There is never a question as to how this will end so what drama is present arises out of the way Tom and Summer interact with one another. Their relationship, as we soon learn, essentially boils down to an old (though no less painful) truism - one person is always more into the other.
And yet to the film’s credit it’s not as simple as all that. Though the story is, for the most part, from Tom’s perspective, and therefore not all of the information is necessarily completely credible (and thus the addition of omniscient narrator guy to deflect this fact), we are privy to enough nuances of their relationship to understand the dynamic. Who among us hasn’t fooled ourselves in ways big and small about a potential or actual relationship with another we surmised was “different” or “better” or “totally our type”? The human heart is a curious thing, and timing, fate, and our own past experiences (as well as those we partner with) all contribute to the precarious, mind-bending force that is romantic love. Tom and Summer originally bond over shared taste in music, but as good as The Smiths may be, love of the tune-age does not a healthy and full relationship make.
The structure of the film is pleasingly innovative with bits that include: a full on dance sequence to a Hall and Oates ditty replete with Dysney-esque cartoon bluebird (zipeety-doo-dah); a series of mock excerpts from foreign art films referencing Bergman (including The Seventh Seal) and The Red Balloon; a clip of the the final scene of The Graduate; and a scene that involves Tom suddenly merging into a darkly animated set. There are plenty of other fun divergences, like the split screen that juxtaposes Tom’s expectations with the reality of what is happening. Unfortunately, there are also a healthy heap of flat indie 101 cliche’s that include Rachel (Chloe Moretz), Tom’s preternaturally wise younger sister (a stock character seen in, among other films, Bottle Rocket); a terribly corny extended frolic through Ikea; Tom’s two (stock) de rigueur nerd friends Mckenzie and Paul, who are both clueless about women; and a inane, jokey scene in a park where our two lead characters shout the word penis with escalating volume (joy).
Where 500 Days succeeds is in showing us two close to real life people with agendas that seem like the kind human beings might actually have. Who hasn’t been in a relationship with someone who didn’t seem entirely emotionally present? Who hasn’t had questions about a significant others past, the feeling that some unspoken sadness or regret was lingering in their heart? Who hasn’t be involved with some great someone who just didn’t love you the same way you loved them? Conversely, who hasn’t been the one who just didn’t feel the same way about someone else? Who hasn’t been the one who just didn’t love the other enough?
Deschanel has the rather thankless duty of playing a character who is, in many ways, an empty slate. New to the city, there aren’t any friends or family to help demonstrate what kind of person Summer really is. Most of what we get from her (besides the bits the narrator dude lets us in on) is through the prism of Tom’s conception of her, and it’s not an accident that the details are fuzzy. Due perhaps to this very decided lack of background information, Summer comes across as somewhat cold-hearted.
That Summer cannot manufacture the necessary feelings to be with Tom is, of course, not her fault, but Tom is our hero and we are naturally sympathetic to his plight. Tom’s feelings for Summer are real if only because they are meaningful to him, but they can only truly penetrate Summer’s consciousness to the extent that she is invested in him and their future together. Summer is, of course, lying to Tom on some level, using him for companionship, sex, friendship or whatever it is people get from one another, but it is impossible to determine to what degree and when (if ever) she is aware of this, and therefore difficult to accurately gage the level of her culpability. And besides, we all do this type of thing to one another in variety of ways, delude ourselves, settle, make compromises, tell ourselves we’re being honest and not hurting the other person, and yet we do hurt one another all the same, all the time.
The youthful looking Gordon-Levitt is remarkably open as Tom, conveying a sincere, well-meaning young man who is, in many ways, inexperienced and immature. Though we barely hear her speak of her past, one gets the sense that Summer has been through more life than Tom somehow, that she has experienced things he has not. One hint we get is when we see them sitting in the movie theater watching The Graduate. Summer is crying at the end of the film, and Tom looks at her as if he hasn’t the foggiest idea of what it’s all about. The end of The Graduate has, for this writer anyway, always been one of the great moments in film. As Elaine (in her wedding dress) and Benjamin sit at the back of the bus, they look, for a few seconds anyway, smugly(?) satisfied over their daring getaway, and then, almost immediately, complicated looks appear on both of their faces that seem to indicate many things at once, but perhaps one of the things being communicated might be, “now what?” Summer obviously identifies with the poignancy of this moment because she understands how complicated life is, and it is through these telling moments that one senses the emotional layers residing within her. People we are unable to penetrate always seem cold to us, but that does not necessarily mean they are so.
While Tom will bear the scar of his unrequited love for Summer, and carry that hurt into his other romantic involvements, their pairing has also pierced his innocence and made him more experienced and wiser (with both the good and bad that implies), qualities one can only hope will serve him in better stead in his relationship with whomever follows Summer. In the same way that Tom will carry on, 500 Days of Summer manages to overcome its failings, mostly because, like Tom, it’s heart is in the right place, and there is something endearing and laudable about that.