I Want to Report 500 Days of Summer to the Better Business Bureau 500 Days of Summer is one of those movies that starts out so promising and subversive, but just wimps out along the way and ends up reinforcing all the old romantic comedy clichés we've grown tired of. A shame, too, because it could have been so much better, and the cast deserved a script worthy of them, but hey, I know better than to expect anything new from these movies, especially one that was so ubiquitous and relentlessly advertised.

The problem with the film, and this is spoilery, but I really can't tell you what's wrong with the movie without discussing its ending, is that it abruptly changes its mind about what kind of movie it wants to be in the third act. It starts out establishing that trauma in one's formative years (either a nasty divorce or too much exposure to Smiths albums and romantic movies) can cause people to be too staunchly on either side of the issue of love: either a) it's a farce not worthy of pursuing that always ends in disaster, or b) it's a magical force owed to everyone, soulmates are real, and love means never having to say you're sorry. Obviously, neither is completely true, and it's foolish to align yourself unwaveringly with either side. That is what this movie starts out being, and it's interesting for a while. Until it completely contradicts itself and just becomes the latter option at the end, that is.

As you've probably gathered from the omnipresent banner ads all over the internet, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character is the die hard romantic, and Zooey Deschanel is the cynic. They date for about 400 days, she tells him from the get-go and throughout that she doesn't want a relationship because she doesn't believe in them, he fools himself into believing his love can change her, and he gets very hurt and angry when she dumps him when he gets too close. So then he's a cynic for a while, which happens. I don't have a problem with that part, and I should mention that there are some pretty fun visual elements in the movie -- whenever he experiences extreme emotional highs or lows he has intense daydreams, all of which were entertaining.

But here's the thing that drove me nuts about this movie: Zooey Deschanel just falls head over heels for some guy like the minute she dumps Gordon-Levitt and marries him immediately, and after the fact she tells her ex-whatever, and us, that it was fate that she met her husband in a coffee shop one day, and that he's her soulmate and that she's done a complete 180 and is now a convert to the rom-com canon. Then Gordon-Levitt meets a pretty girl named fricking Autumn, if you can believe that, in the next scene, and he is instantly cured of his cynicism because he's found his soulmate and it's love at first sight, because apparently those two things exist in this storyworld now, all of a sudden, even though we just spent over an hour examining how foolish it is for grown-ups to believe in fairy tales, or extremes when it comes to love in general.

So that's why this movie is stupid. If you're still interested in it, I recommend renting it and just watching the first 70 minutes, because the final scenes are a real aggravating bait-and-switch. If you want to be a Ghosts of Girlfriends past standard rom-com, just be that. Literally no one is stopping you. Just don't try to sell yourself as something better than that and crap out at the end. I paid 12 bucks for this!

6 Comments

July 21, 2009 2:24 PM
scully546
Reply

I can understand the 180-turn element to an extent. The fact is that many cynicical people do seem to change thier minds on love and marriage when they meet "the right" person. But I can see how it would appear foolish when shown over a short amount of time, right after having an hour's or more)worth of story that dealt with convincing the audience of the complete opposite side of that spectrum. Maybe the movie was trying to get the point across that world is topsy turvy and we shouldn't take anything for granted? IDK, I wasn't going to see this movie anyway.

July 21, 2009 3:10 PM
meghan
Reply

Gee, thanks for giving away the ENTIRE PLOT!! Jerks.

July 21, 2009 8:29 PM
Lauren
Reply

while i was also disappointed by this movie and agree that it could have been way better with some changes (the precocious little sister? you're better than that, movie!), i think it's hardly a standard romcom, despite both deschanel and gordon levitt ending up believers in kismet. i think what makes a typical romantic comedy is the two main characters whom you invest in meetcute, fall in love, get mad at each other, and then back together forever. 500 days of summer lacks not only the happy ending but the happy middle, or really the notion that we should be rooting for these two. i think the autumn thing was just whimsy, like a lot of the movie. also a nod to the fact that this girl might screw him up real bad all over again like summer. sorry, i uh, just saw this.

August 12, 2009 3:10 PM
nik
Reply

I actually liked the movie, and the more I’ve thought about it the more I’ve liked it. There were several messages in the movie for me.

One was that there are some people who come into your life just for a period. They aren’t meant to be in your life forever. The come, they have their effect, and then they leave (and I don’t mean that in a “using people” way, and this isn’t limited to romantic partners). Tom and Summer were each that for the other. They wouldn’t be who they were by the end of the movie if they hadn’t met each other.

The irony is that Tom and Summer weren’t a match when they met, but they affected change in each other, and became people that might actually be compatible. Instead they will be in a better position to be compatible with someone else, and that’s ok.

Another is that rather than running from or to Love, just be open to it and if you’re lucky you’ll experience it. In this way I respectfully disagree with the article’s interpretation of the movie’s themes. I agree that the movie started out with the two polarized views of love, with Summer rejecting the idea of Love and Tom trying to create it where it didn’t exist. But I disagree that the movie concludes with the message that Tom’s point of view is correct. Instead I believe that the movie’s message is a happy compromise. By the end, both parties found happiness and the possibility of love when they finally stopped running to/from it and just left themselves open to it.

February 2, 2010 8:25 AM
Anon the Mouse
Reply
replied to comment from meghan

This was a review. Of course it gave away the entire plot.

August 16, 2010 2:18 PM
Nikki
Reply
replied to comment from meghan

What part of "and this is spoilery" don't you understand? Idiot.

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