Boy meets Girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. Agony and Ecstasy ensue. (500) Days of Summer is the directorial debut of Marc Webb and stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a boy named Tom and Zooey Deschanel as a girl named Summer. It was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber, a team that according to IMDB was also responsible for Pink Panther 2. Go figure. Anyway this time they’ve penned a cinematic gem that should join the short list of great romantic comedies like Annie Hall, When Harry Met Sally, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Watch for this movie come awards time because this is just the kind of Original Screenplay the Academy loves giving the Oscar to.
Tom is introduced to us as a boy who believes in love. Summer confesses at one point that she doesn’t even know what that word means. She doesn’t want to date Tom and says so. That being said, she will sleep with him and indeed starts everything herself one day in the copy room by walking up to him and, without saying a word, kisses him. Poor Tom, he never had a chance. The movie creates some very inventive ways to illustrate how Tom feels about Summer. It employs an omniscient narrator, direct to camera soliloquies, flashbacks and flash-forwards, karaoke, at least one heartfelt resignation speech, and black and white artistic renderings. At one point it ventures into a black and white documentary and we are informed that Summer’s high school yearbook quote was a song lyric that sings, “Colour my life with the chaos of trouble.” Another inspired spectacle occurs when Tom, high on love, walks down the street super happy and the entirety of Los Angeles breaks into song and dance all around him to the tune of “You Make My Dreams,” by Hall & Oates. When Tom feels the agony of bona fide rejection the movie feels it too, the entire screen morphing into a black and white etching and deconstructing before our eyes.
But what really makes this movie special is the details. The attention paid to the specifics draws the movie into pure cinematic poetry in some scenes, like when Tom and Summer play house in an Ikea, or when Tom draws the LA skyline on Summer’s arm, or when the movie splits the screen showing what Tom’s expectations of a rooftop party would be on one side, and what the reality is on the other. I especially loved the work that went into the Greeting Cards that Tom works on. (I haven’t mentioned that yet. Tom works at a Greeting Card company. Summer is the new assistant at the office.) Some of them are pretty damn good like, “Everyday I am proud of you, but today you get a card.” Or “I Love Us.” Or how about the first scene in which they talk to each other. They are both standing in the elevator when Summer hears ‘The Smiths’ through Tom’s headphones. She breaks the ice by saying she like ‘The Smiths,’ compliments his taste in music, and sings offhand one of their lyrics. The lyric they chose for her to sing in this tiny little moment was so perfect and profound that my reaction to it was the same as Tom’s: “Holy Shit.”
Joseph Gordon-Levitt has been quietly pulling together a very impressive track record of small independent movies. Here, he should formally carry on the torch of Heath Ledger as the most promising young actor in the business. Zooey Deschanel matches him in every scene. She infuses her character with this innocent confidence that is both terribly cute and infuriating. One can completely see why Tom, when asked whether he would rather marry, boff, or kill her, says he’d like to do all three. I especially liked it when he surmised that she might be an evil robot. Boy that takes me back. Could these two get nominations? I don’t know, but I will say this, I am starting to warm to the idea of the Best Picture category holding ten nominees instead of five. This type of movie wouldn’t have made it in the past, but with the extra room it should be able to get in handily. It is certainly one of the best movies I have seen this year. It’s the best romantic comedy I have seen since ‘Forgetting Sarah Marshall.’
Did I mention that this movie was funny? Well it is. It’s not all love and misery you know; it’s got wit, warmth, quick one-liners, a fight, comic vignettes, keen juxtaposition, and clever coincidences. Heck what more can I say. This movie has it all. I really hope it comes to a theater near you soon.
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