Tom Hansen [Joseph Gordon-Levitt] works as at a greeting card company and his boss just got a new assistant, Summer Finn [Zooey Deschanel], that he falls in love with at first sight. The movie takes u through the 500 days of Tom’s life with Summer, including the ups and downs. The best way to summarize this movie is a story about love, but it isn’t a love story.
Since certain films I don’t get to see in theatres for a long while – if at all – I find myself always playing catch up and being hyped for films before walking in. As much as I refuse to read proper reviews for films before I’ve seen it myself I’ll always read people’s small comments on twitter on see the glorified titles in my rss feed reader as I skip through all the posts they make every day. So to say that this movie’s reputation preceded itself is maybe being coy. However, I must agree 100% with critics that I’ve heard from on this movie. This is one of the best movies of the year, and currently sits #1 on my list of top films of 2009.
For some reason I see every reason why someone would call this a romantic comedy, however I don’t think of this as one at all. This is a romantic film told from the perspective of Tom and the 500 days of his life which consist of him falling in and out of love with Summer. I love not only the moments which are sweet and charming but also the depressing sad times with Tom being crushed and eventually getting over her. There are moments in the movie which were totally over fantasized by Tom, especially the great moments when everything was great between the two of them, but at the same time I kind of accepted it as fact because it was such a joy to experience the story through his thoughts. The kicker in the movie for me was how we perceive the ending of relationship, we’re thrown into the middle of the story and am not sure what really happened and feel almost as dumbfounded as Tom as to why Summer decides to end it and then we’re treated to some depressing moments that can only be compared to the wonderful film from 2000 High Fidelity.
Marc Webb incorporates the correct amount of sweet and salty to bring us the correct flavour that tastes just right in a movie which will, I hope, show all the other generic romantic comedies what they can really be. His use of time shifting in the film is wonderful in helping us understand every moment that occurs for Tom as he jumps from day 1 to day 255 and further throughout the film. For all those out there who have gotten tired of the now mundane romcom that comes out every two to three months in the theatre this is for you. Even if you’ve never had your heart broken there is a lot to relate to in the movie and you can empathize with Tom as he goes through his depression in the later part of these 500 days.
The perfect topping on this movie was the addition of Tom’s little sister, Rachel [Chloe Moretz], who plays the role of the honest female voice for Tom. It is down right hilarious that a 10 year old is giving Tom insight into the female mind and also helping him cope with his dolor.
In the end I have to say that this movie is perfect in my eyes and I can’t wait to see it again. I loved everything about this movie and I hope you do too.
IMDB says 8.3/10
Rotten Tomatoes says 87%
I say 10/10