In Short: Loved it. Now excuse me while i relive the film through the soundtrack."500 Days of summer", I say a little too happily
For a beat, my temporary enthusiasm is considered and judged a sane one.
"Isn't that a rom-com?" he says, with a little distaste and unmistakable trepidation (boys pfftt)
"No," I am a indignant while someone else chimes in "Yes."
I shoot her a look. "But," she amended, " it has a sad ending."
For all my acquired elitist sensibilities against romantic comedies, there is no way around it. 500 Days of Summer is a romantic comedy although it very cleverly twists the genre. In fact, the entire movie is just that:endlessly clever and delightful.
If I write a proper review, I will run out of synonyms for charming by the second sentence. Let's just do a roll call of adjectives shall we? Quirky, Offbeat, Whimsical, Adorable, Slightly Eccentric, Refreshing, Hey Original surprised you're here, Satirical turns up late but it's been trying.
The premise of the film, unrequited love is not a new one but I don't think it has ever been this doused in sepia toned nostalgia. By that I mean, the movie
flounces taking you on a figurative frolicking under summer sunshine.
From the casting of Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel to the calculated whimsy of a happy jig down the streets complete with a colour coordinated marching band and animated disney birds, there is no denying that is effusively charming. Even (help us all.) the swearing is precocious.
I loved the film, really I did.
I loved how it's not rom com aimed specifically at me but volleys it primarily to the other gender as well. I liked how the dialogue treaded on the thin line between saccharine sweetness and saving itself with precise randomness [ "Honey,I don't know how to tell you this but there is a chinese family in our kitchen] and the soundtrack isn't going anywhere off my Ipod anytime soon. I appreciated how various film techniques, non-linear story lines, animation, stop motion were all incorporated without seeming too gimmicky.
At the same time, there was something lacking. It was perceptive on it's take on the most difficult aspect of modern love, defining it [although, i will not claim to know anything of romance] and the non-linear retelling of the relationship through 500 days is genius, analogical to hapaharzadly flipping through old photo books.
The film breezes tripping only slightly because there wasn't gravity to the film to hold all the fluff together. It's deconstruction on the themes of unrequited love, disillusionment of youth , moving on, taking hold of destiny was done too briefly with too little depth. The culmination of these themes was also done in a disappointing manner with the lead taking an easy pot shot at how greeting cards were creating fairy tales for us to believe in and a supposedly epic storming out of an office
It also suffers from what I like to think of as Garden State syndrome whereby the ending just fails miserably in contrast to the rest of the movie. There is no definable climax or a clever, dead pan anti-climax. Sure, leave the movie open but there must be some sort of stylistic closure like flourishing a doodle with your signature.
