AMB Reviews

(500) Days of Summer: 9.5/10 Stars

Release Date: July 17, 2009

Content Advisory: Rated PG-13 for sexual material and language. Sex is implied several times (one bare shoulder is the most we ever see, however). A couple of crude/sexual comments, as well as implied shower sex (once again, we don't see much of anything). One f-word. Several characters get drunk while at a bar.

Review:

"(500) Days of Summer" is an indie flick that barely any of my friends know about. Let's just say that I'm amazingly glad I DID...

In Short:

"(500) Days Of Summer" is the most unpredictable romance story I've ever seen. Of course... the slogan for this movie is that it's not a love story. Which it's not... in a way. This film follows Tom, a young man determined to finding true love. Of course, when he finally finds the girl he thinks is "the one," it just so happens to be Summer... a woman who strongly believes that there is no such thing as love. This then takes off on a 500 day dissection of one man's uplifting, inspiring, quirky, depressing, and a times very hilarious love affair with a woman who doesn't believe such a thing even exists. The acting was superb, and the dialogue stuck out as witty and impressive. This indie is definitely up there with the best summer movies of 2009.

In Full:

Tom is looking for love. Summer is not... as she doesn't believe it exists. But when Tom and Summer meet each other via work, that may be just about to change. Through 500 days of their relationship, we see their awkward, quirky, and truly unique relationship come to life, as Summer desperately wants nothing more of Tom than just to be friends, while Tom sees them as an actual couple. I never quite knew where the film would take me next, and it kept me guessing right up until the very last minute of it. The pacing was perfect and the story original and very clever. All romance movies I've seen are usually nothing more than predictable fluff, but this turned out to be quite the opposite.

Though I've never seen Joseph Gordon-Levitt act before, I found him to do a fine job as Tom. He at times seemed to be a bit out of it, but in the end I found his performance strong and definitely worthy of praise. The real star here, in my opinion, was Zooey Deschanel, whom I have really only seen in minor roles before. Here, she is given a starring lead as a quirky, witty, and down to earth type girl. Summer is a difficult, frustrating, and truly fascinating character, and her portrayal of her made me look at Deschanel as a strong and very mature young actress. I'll definitely be keeping an eye on her. The supporting cast is finished off well with Clark Gregg, Geoffrey Arend, and Matthew Gray Gubler.

Though this film was lower budget, I found the setting absolutely perfect. Nothing about this film seemed low budget, besides the occasional shaky camera work, which only added to its brilliance. I can't pin point exactly where it was filmed, but the scenery always retained a perfect feel for this film. The film itself was very beautiful, and the background just seemed to top it off. Like the icing on a cake or the bow on a wrapped gift... it always adds just the nicest touch. The rest of the visuals fit right in with the movie as well... wrapping it all up in one big and beautiful package.

What can I say? This is usually the paragraph I take to complain about the film's cons. But alas... what if the film doesn't have any? Of course, I find that pretty much any film has at least one thing wrong with it, but all I could really find in this one was Levitt's occasional tendency to sort of trip up in his performance. There were times when he was really excelling, and then he would just seem to stop. I found that his performance was, though strong, just a tad inconsistent.

It shouldn't be too hard to sum up my opinion on this film. At the time I saw it, it was only playing in two theaters in my entire state. Too bad... I would've definitely liked to see this released in more places, as it truly is a masterpiece. And a very unique one at that. The casting was dead-on for this type of film, and I found its level of quirkiness exactly what it needed to make it original, awkward, spunky, uplifting, saddening, thought provoking, and truly phenomenal. I congratulate the director, Marc Webb for creating such a brilliant piece of art.