500 days of boredom, of tepid technique, of false sincerity. 500 days of derived moments, of cliches, of girls in dresses with blue satin sashes. 500 Days of Summer...
In the teaser trailer, narrator Leslie Nielsen states a bunch of stuff like this, except he wants you to see the movie, so he tries to make it sound good and damn if he did a fine job of getting my ass in the seat. Obviously I wasn't too taken with this one, and writing a review will just end up an overview of complaints, but here we go.
Care to read on? You know the drill. After the break.
Early on in the movie Joseph Gordon-Levitt's Tom - the architect who writes greeting cards - tells Zooey Deschanel's Summer - the new office assistant- that in college he was described as "perfectly adequate" and that is what the production of this movie is; perfectly adequate but simply beating a dead horse in any other department.
Because of the screenwriter's and director Marc Webb's choice of structuring the story as a series of (generally) short memories presented in a coherent but not cohesive order, there is no entry point to connect or know Tom and Summer. They come off as almost likable people, emphasis on almost and people . There is no space to intellectualize or meander either as we drop in and out of days quick enough, though not at a frenetic pace.
The film is supposed to be a story about love (not a love story) from the male's perspective. It certainly gets that right. There is no reason why Tom would or should be in love with Summer, he is in love with the idea of being in love and is clearly something of a narcissist.
Summer on the other hand is that charming, oh so attainable yet unattainable woman. She's just an idea, a perfect beta male fantasy, and we never know if there is an actual human being behind that pixie secretary sparkle of Deschanel's baby blues. She is a falsehood and an enigma that presents no mystery, ultimately driving the hollow and hackneyed nature of the picture.
Otherwise you could say Tom and Summer are clothing line models (hell, even mannequins) what with Tom strutting around in his "professor who likes rock" digs, and Summer's "little girl as 60s housewife" get ups. And with prominent featuring of Ikea, Philips and various "indie" acts peppering the soundtrack one would think its all a big advertisement.
Though the biggest false ad is for Los Angeles itself. The movie paints downtown LA as the LA; the place to work and live. While it may be headed in that direction the city ain't there yet as the producers of this movie and the mayor's office would sure like you to believe.
Supporting characters are no worse for wear, providing points of entry for exposition or friendly, generally dull banter. The only time I actually laughed was at the two silly -and very direct- Bergman references in the 8mm-ish intervals and at the extremely dopey ending.
So that's that. I could go on but why bother? It really isn't worth it. I was disappointed yes, because for some reason this looked good. I generally like Gordon-Levitt, and I acknowledge the cuteness of Deschanel, though I think she is better off pursuing her budding music career rather than her acting.
Neither a "quirky JUNO" or an "angsty GARDEN STATE" , Fox Searchlight's latest indie acquisition ends up being a mostly empty box painted up real pretty. The little that is in that box are generally harmless hipster wet dreams concocted by a light weight director bespeckled with the likes of Godard and Rohmer and an LA to lie for.