(500) Days of Summer

Ty gives ** stars

Title: (500) Days of Summer

Directed by: Marc Webb

Starring:

Zooey Deschanel

and

Joseph Gordon-Levitt

and other people that aren't as famous

Release date: July 17th 2009 (Limited)

First of all, I just wanted to say that I was disappointed with this movie. I thought that this movie was going to be beautiful, funny, artistic, and wonderful, but in my opinion it wasn’t. So what is this movie about? It’s a basic boy meets girl story. The boy, Tom Hansen, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Cameron in 10 Things I Hate About You, Tommy Solomon on 3^rd Rock From the Sun) sees girl, Summer Finn, played by the always lovely Zooey Deschanel (Jovie in Elf, Trillian in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Allison in Yes Man) at work. They eventually meet, eventually fall in love, eventually drift away from each other, and eventually break up. Don’t worry. I’m not giving away anything by saying that they break up. It’s stated in the trailer and happens to be told within the first 60 seconds of the movie. So what are the good things about this movie? Well Tom and Summer are a cute couple. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets to play a normal, average smuck who falls for the pretty girl in the office. Zooey is adorable throughout the movie, which is what she does best, especially when she sings. The story about their relationship leading to a break up isn't actually original looking back at films like Annie Hall and The Break Up, but feels fresh and new. Talking to one of my students who saw this film in theaters and loved it, the reason why I think he enjoyed the film more than I did when I watched it was because he was empathetic to Tom. I believe that he had been in Tom’s shoes before and that he had fallen for a girl and been in a relationship and while he thought the world was perfect and everything was as it should be, she dumped him. Harsh and hard at the same time, but still very real and I believed that this film really spoke to him. Did this film speak to me? No. So why did I not like this movie? Was it because they didn’t get together in the end? No. That made the film more interesting. No, the reason why I didn’t enjoy this film was one, Tom was at fault in the first place for not listening. I know it’s always easier to see the solution when you are outside of the problem or if the problem is not yours to begin with, but the fact is that while my sister and I were watching this movie, we watched Tom fall in love and we also saw how blind he was to the situation at hand. Watching Tom with Summer is like watching a car wreck. It’s easier to see where and when the wreck is going to happen when you’re outside the car. This is sad but true. Second, I know its considered artsy and creative to jump around with flashbacks, and some movies do it better than others, but this movie is one that did not do the flashbacks as well. Also, having the flashbacks out of order sort of made the film confusing, especially if you weren't paying full attention to the movie, which comes to my third point. The movie was boring. I’m sorry, but it was. One of my great friends once told me right after he had read a short story that I had written, that when it comes to writing any great story, it has to have conflict in it. It doesn't matter what kind of story it is or how long the story is, it has to have good conflict. That was something I had to think about and I still think about it today, which has helped me come to this conclusion. All films are intended to entertain, in this case, entertain me and whoever is watching it. Sure, there are different types of films out there, from biography to documentary, but the sole purpose for a film isn’t to merely inform me about something I didn’t know, but to also entertain me as well. Though (500) Days of Summer might be about something I don't understand or have ever experienced, it should thoroughly entertain me in order to be considered a great film and this film failed to do that.