If the cliche for female film goers is loving the empty headed chick flick that’s ultimately about romance the new cliche for men and especially male filmmakers is the predisposition to tell wallowing tales about emo heartbreak And perhaps its telling about the differences between men and women. One wants to idealize the concept of falling head over heels (generally after an asshole they tamed), the other wants to romanticize the one that left and hang on to the sorrow as best they can.
“500 Days Of Summer” squarely falls into the latter category, but thankfully has more to provide than just woe is me self-pity even though it is a heartbreak story (as announced through narration right off the top) and not a romantic comedy love story first and foremost (though it does have some of those elements and note: chickflix for men are usually brofests, but this is perhaps just another strand of this ilk).
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a happy-go-lucky, naïve, romantic 20-something that works as a greeting card writer instead of pursuing the architecture career he went to school for. And Gordon-Levitt deserves credit for the broad range of his oeuvre; he always carefully selects roles that are interesting and challenging to him (we don’t think he’s played a romantic since “10 Things I Hate About You” in 1999.)
The same can not be said for Zooey Deschanel who, once again, plays Summer, the blank slate, object of his affection, aloof, distant, and damaged,– if she plays this role one more goddamn time she may have to go to actors jail–like all pretty porcelain girls who don’t know what the hell they want. Tom projects Summer as the perfect mate while she keeps one foot on the outside by claiming she wants no commitment, but doggedly acts like she’s having the time of her life (admittedly, a seemingly all-too-true propensity in many real-life kewpie dolls).
Tom is quickly besotted and they fall in love or like, but as soon as it gets too serious and he fights some asshole on her behalf, she bails (of course). The film then deals with the painful realization that she’s moved on and he’s left with a world of crestfallen hurt.
The narrative’s framework uses the 500 days calendar as a conceit to flip around through their relationship and the film carefully constructs a non-linear (but not too non-linear) path to jump around from early moments of bliss, to much later scenes of self-destructive self-pity. The trick is thankfully well thought out enough to not feel totally random.
The arc is fairly predictable, however the film does seem to almost act as a cautionary tale and addresses our issues of the male over-romanticizing reality, perhaps something every young male needs to experience firsthand. Directed by video music filmmaker Mark Webb, ‘500 Days’ is stylish, but not vacuously so. Some of it works and some of it feels a little too self-indulgent and this is how much of the film’s pendulum swings; it’s a sweet, mostly tremendously enjoyable story, but flawed in some of its stylish tics.
The narration is contrived, the ingratiating opening borders on cloying, jam packed style (titles, animation, etc.) and a segment that gives a broad and obvious homagistic black & white nod to the French New Wave and Bergman (both “Persona” & “The Seventh Seal”) is cute, but wholly unnecessary.
And yet, some of it is enormously charming as well. The “musical” sequence, where JGL’s Tom bursts into song and dance (Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams Come True“) to convey his bursting-at-the-seams happiness is delightful. The karaoke scene where Tom belts out a drunken, rambling, but utterly appealing, version of The Pixies’ “Here Comes Your Man,” is splendid and forces you break a wide smile. And a dreamy, train-ride moment set to the U2-like echoed guitar strains of the Temper Trap’s “Sweet Disposition” is so bittersweet it leaves a genuine lump in your throat. All these moments, however, are generally simple and it’s the mostly unadorned (aside from perhaps music) that make the heartbreaking moments feel intensely real.
At it’s best and when it has found its groove (generally once the twee stylistic opening ends), “500 Days Of Summer,” begins to breathe and is largely fetching and winsome, and at its worst, it’s imperfect, gooey and marginally irritating (some of the characters whose roles are set-up solely for exposition are an exhausting, problematic flaw), but overall it’s mostly well-crafted and when the film decides to get honest with itself (and perhaps stop trying to have fun and please) and dig deep into the pain of broken hearts and emotional resignation it delivers tons of affecting dividends (the cutesy little wink at the end for the next girl however is a little frustrating and undermining).
For 20-something males first coming to grips with their emotional maturity and the capacity to feel true love and pain, getting hurt and growing up is a rite of passage and ‘500 Days’ ultimately acts best as a manhood tale of surviving deep cutting wounds. [B+]
“500 Days of Summer” hits theaters properly July 17 in limited release via Fox Searchlight.