(500) Days Of Summer which is concisely explained in it's movie poster tag line...Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't. It stars likable, everyman Joseph Gorden-Levitt along with the kooky and cute Zooey Deschanel. When he meets her at work, Levitt is immediately drawn to Deschanel. However, not believing in the concept of love, she's content with simply friendship...even if that definition extends to all the things you'd expect in a relationship....including sex.
This could quite easily have become just another rom-com for Vince Vaughan or Reece Witherspoon to sleepwalk through, but thanks to an outstanding script and an inventive, first time director, 500 Days is a must-watch reinvention of a depressingly tired genre. For a start it's whimsically narrated, told in a non-linear fashion (flicking back and forth through the 500 days of the story...day 1 being the day he meets Deschanel's Summer) and littered with amusing, insightful inserts which punctuate the main narrative. Like Family Guy or Ally McBeal, these oddities make 500 Days unpredictable and energetic...not since Shaolin Soccer or Clerks 2 have I seen an impromptu dance sequence spring to life on screen. The dialogue is witty, benefiting from a more adult rating, while the story is tense with possibilities. Will Zooey see the light of day and embrace their love...after all it seems genuine enough? Or will Joseph see sense, and let her go...after all she's been honest and upfront with him about their relationship status. Deschanel has the harder job, as she could appear to be stringing poor Levitt along, but she gives Summer a straight-forwardness and radiance that's hard not to like.
There's a cool soundtrack, a classily photographed New York backdrop and colourful supporting characters, this feels a little like Swingers or Wedding Crashers; a rom com that blokes will enjoy.
1 comment:
I liked this a lot. A very good anti-rom com and a novel and creative way to revive an often dull and uninspiring genre. And both leads are great.
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