250 Ups and 250 Downs

I just took in the quirky love rollar-coaster flick 500 Days of Summer, starring the almost forgotton 3rd Rock adolescent turned adult Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and the oddly attractive and off-beat actress Zooey Dechanel. Levitt plays Tom Hansen, a lovestruck greeting card writer want-to-be arcitect, who’s lust for love leads him to fall for his boss’ new assistant Summer Finn, played by Dechanel. As Tom, a romantic, pursues Summer he comes to learn that she doesn’t believe that true love exists.

As the film progresses it is a variatable out of order montage summary of Tom and Summer’s relationship from the perpective of the hopeless protaganist. This bi-polar story of exhilerating highs and excruciating lows, shows Tom’s real emotions of falling for the unattainable. The two continue to share intimate physical and emotional connections as a non-serious but apparent couple situation; shopping at Ikea, shopping at the record store, and Tom even getting punched out for her honor!

They grow closer and closer and you think maybe, just maybe, they are perfect for each other; but you realize their different takes on love and life and you just know, Tom’s gonna think too much. The theme of the story is Tom’s longing for more from Summer, never able to settle on where the relationship is headed. Every little moment presents it’s own moment in Tom’s imagination’s perception of he and Summer and whatever it is they are sharing. Every good moment Tom perceves as being with Summer forever, and every down moment Tom sees the bitter end. In contrast, Summer sees everyday s just a close friendship.

500 Days of Summer is a comedy full of quips, one-liners, and modern day adult rhetoric. It has plenty of laugh out loud moments featuring drunken karaoke, off the wall friends, verbal misperceptions about the word ‘anal’, and even excessive screaming of the word ‘penis.’ But when it all comes down to it, the quirky humor fits well with the story and even better with Levitt and Dechanel. These two’s chemistry was phenominal and made the characters of Tom and Summer the best part of the film.

I was skeptical, to say the least, about Levitt, seeing as he’s been nothing more than a blip on the radar since the end of 3rd Rock. Not only did Levitt exceed my expectations, he made me feel the emotions of Tom Hansen. Dechanel I was less skeptical about. I have enjoyed her work, even in movies in downright loathed (See Failure to Launch. And yes a girlfriend ‘made’ me watch that), and here she played the mysteriously confident woman as well as anyone. She was exactly the kind of girl you could fall for, and think that she would fall for you even when deep down inside you know she never would. The two actors were outstanding.

Rarely (see Summer Catch and She’s All That) does a romantic comedy perk my interest, but 500 Days of Summer did just that, and it delivered. I advise to see this film if you get the chance, it’s a great story and it supplies a boat full of laughs. Queue it up on the Netflix.