A perfect encapsulation of a 21st century romance—along with a great soundtrack
I'm 26 years old, and I grew up media-saturated beyond belief.
Where did I learn about love? Well, from my parents, of course. But also from Sleepless in Seattle and When Harry Met Sally. From Counting Crows. From The Postal Service. From F. Scott Fitzgerald. From Garden State. From any number of films, books, songs, poems and TV shows that had love as a major thematic point—in other words, almost every piece of media made since I was born.
So for me and people born around the same time as me: If pretty much every piece of culture we’ve consumed in the past 20 some years has shaped our view of love ... how do we know what love really is?
That's the question at the heart of (500) Days of Summer. The main characters are, not coincidentally, somewhere in their mid-20s. At one point, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) pounds his hand on the table in frustration and yells "Movies, pop songs, cards ... they're responsible." Responsible for what? For Tom's obsession with love and finding "the one"—the person he believes is embodied by Summer (Zooey Deschanel). The problem: Summer thinks the concept of "true love" is a myth.
Summer and Tom meet over a mutual appreciation of The Smiths (a band that manages to be both painfully earnest and sardonic about love all at once ... just like Tom and Summer, respectively). They both work for a greeting card company that creates new ways to say "I love you" for people who can't quite seem to figure out the right words. Tom and Summer go on dates to see The Graduate and to IKEA where they demonstrate the 21-century version of playing house. Theirs is a living, breathing relationship that could only take place in this period of time, when earnestness constantly rubs against irony until no one’s quite sure who’s right anymore.
The film is most remarkable for its sincere and authentic treatment of relationships. In less capable hands than director Marc Webb, the characters would have been one-dimensional hipsters, walking ads for Urban Outfitters. Instead, much like the characters in Rachel Getting Married who made love seem so natural and authentic, Tom and Summer are fleshed-out people who experience all of the complexities of relationships, love and figuring out life. Along with Tom (the film takes his perspective most often), viewers are reminded of the soaring highs of relationships—those moments when the world blooms before you—and the crushing lows, when every single part of life, including the weather, seems determined to crush you.
And, of course, the film is made all the more enjoyable by pitch-perfect performances from Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt. Deschanel glows (literally in some scenes) as the object of Tom's love, and Gordon-Levitt makes Tom's journey from optimist, to love-addled romantic to destroyed ex-lover believable and empathetic. He's sort of like John Cusack's character in High Fidelity, but with a whole lot more self-awareness—he's willing to admit when he's wrong.
(500) Days of Summer is creatively shot and edited as well. Webb makes great use of split screens (particularly during an extended scene juxtaposing “expectations” with “reality”), and even manages to showcase a giant dance number in the park. For a movie like this, the soundtrack needs to be like a mixtape and the producers succeed on that end, too. Naturally, The Smiths receive their share of play time, but so does Regina Spektor, Doves and ... Hall & Oates.
Overall, the film is a perfect encapsulation of a 21st century relationship. The conclusions aren’t neat, the pain seems just as real as the euphoria and the ending just might surprise you. In (500) Days of Summer, guys and girls are often equally confused about just what love is, but all of us expect that it’s out there somewhere—if we can just get past our pop culture intake, that is.
