Film Review: 500 Days of Summer (2009)

Directed by Marc Webb

 

"An offbeat romantic comedy about a woman who doesn't believe true love exists, and the young man who falls for her." - IMDB

 

For a task in one of my modules for university, I had to pick my all time favourite film and write an analysis on it. 500 Days of Summer isn't my all time favourite, but it's one of them! I thought I'd jazz up my analysis a bit and post it in a blog... Why not?

 

The film has a very interesting narrative and non-linear structure which makes it stand out and one of my favourites. There are lots of flashbacks and jumps in time but I like how the screen shows us the day number which it is in the film. Using this numbering system stops the film from becoming really confusing, although you do have to keep track of the number order.

 

You get put into Tom's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) mindset throughout the film a lot. The story is told from his perspective, although this appears as a narrator and makes the film feel more like a story or a fairy tale. We see a lot of montages used in the film which lets us into Tom's head and shows us scenes of what we expect a perfect relationship like theirs to be like - what we want.

I love the split screen scene in the film. Tom gets invited to Summer's (Zoeey Deschanel) party and half of the screen shows his expectations of what will happen at the party and the reality. It leaves us feeling disheartened for Tom but it's such a good scene!

The film's soundtrack is also amazing! I love Us by Regina Spektor. It's such a cute song and being the first song we hear, it sets the tone for the film. The soundtrack fits perfectly and every time I listen to a song from it, I have pictures in my head from the film. Although I do think that it's the kind of summery film that lends itself to the soundtrack. I hear song now and can imagine it being in the film. Stella Del Mattino by Einaudi being one!

I know a lot of people don't like Zooey Deschanel but I love her. I think I love her so much because of her performance in this film. Summer is a girl who doesn't believe in falling in love and she hides a lot of things and I think that Deschanel plays it really well. (Feel free to disagree and please don't send me death threats. I'm just expressing my opinion ;) )

 

So yeah. Just go watch 500 Days of Summer because it's an amazing feel good film. I usually watch it every time I feel ill and it cheers me up. I have no idea why since it's a bit depressing at times but whatever gets you kicks!

I'll probably do a review of this on Box Office on Friday at 3pm so feel free to listen in!