It’s a bit late to be categorised in ‘Box Office’ and it’s not quite on DVD yet (DVD will be out 18 January 2010) but I had the chance to catch this film recently and wondered what took me so long to get to round to watching this genius film.

(500) Days of Summer is a romance/comedy but it is most definitely not a typical “rom-com”. I cannot stress it enough that this is not a boy-meets-girl, they-have-some-kind-of-misunderstanding-and-they-hate-each-other-but-for-some-wierd-fated-reason-they-are-forced-together-and-slowly-a-budding-romance-develops-and-eventually-turns-into-a-full-frontal-wedding. So if you’re looking for that – go check out The Proposal or something.

(500) Days of Summer’s tagline is “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t.”
But the film has way more to offer than just those three circumstances. This is an offbeat, slightly quirky romantic comedy with a play on the words of the title – this film isn’t about 500 days in the season of summer, it’s the memories of a boy’s relationship (or lack of) with a charming girl called Summer.

The Plot

Tom is a greeting card writer who dreams of finding his true love and one day comes across charming, vintage beauty Summer and falls head over heels in love instantly. However, Summer has very different views about love – she thinks it doesn’t exist. Furthermore she doesn’t want to be tied down to a relationship so to make things more complicated, so the couple serenade as ‘friends’ which throws Tom into ecstasy when they’re together on a relationship ‘high’ but at the same time frustrates Tom to no end when they’re on a relationship ‘low’ or rather when there is no established relationship.

Directed by Marc Webb who is relatively new but will be hugely in demand after this masterpiece which is written by  Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber starring the cute-as-hell Joseph Gordon-Levitt and beautiful Zooey Deschanel and also Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler as the two most awesome sidekicks, providing a good deal of the laughs and adding to the overall ingenuity of the plot.

The Thoughts

The beauty of this film is that it disregards the traditional linear plot of rom-com by visiting each memory of Tom in a seemingly random order. The audience is taken on a delightful journey through Tom’s mind as he jumps from moment to moment. This film is so magically put together that it manages the most unconventional twist i.e. stating at the beginning that “this is not a love story” but it somehow manages to make you feel “love butterflies” whilst being bitter-sweet at the same time.

I couldn’t think of two more perfect actors to portray the characters than Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom and Zooey Deschanel as Summer. Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate About You) is the sweetest, most sincere, timid guy who is whole-heartedly chasing his one true love, and Deschanel (The Happening) is a pure beauty – so believable that you cannot help but fall deeply in love with her innocent blue eyes, blushed cheeks and sweet smile along with her charming, quirky ways – they make for a warm exterior but be prepared get your heart smashed in with her cold interior.

This is a highly recommended and highly intelligent film, resonating with raw insights and brimming with lessons in love, this will take a piece out of you and hopefully you will take a piece of it home with you.

You guys need. to. check. it. out. Catch it on DVD in just over a month’s time.

If you have seen this already, what did you think of it? Did it give you lovey-dovey goosebumps or was it just an average rom-com to you?

The Film Buzz Review Rating: 8.5/10

Cinema Release Date: 2 September 2009

DVD Release Date: 18 January 2010

Director: Marc Webb

Writer’s: Scott Neustadter (written by) Michael H. Weber (written by)

Links: IMDB, Official Site, Rotten Tomatoes

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