(500) DAYS OF SUMMER [2009] review
May 9, 2010 · Print This Article
I often keep movies in my mental queue to watch at some time in the near future. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER had been in that queue for a good nine months. I thought all along it was just about a long summer romance, never actually crunching the numbers to see that not only does 500 extend into fall, it would have to extend into the next year. All that was clarified in the opening moments of the movie though. The object of the protagonist’s affection is, you see, a girl named Summer.
If the movie was one thing, I thought it was very real. The seemingly nonsensical actions of Tom, to me, were all very plausible, i.e. getting involved with a girl who says she does not really want a boyfriend thinking to yourself, and in his case actually saying to her, that true love with another person can change that, and I am in fact that person that can affect that change.
The grief that could be spared if only Tom, and others like him, could stop themselves from still pursuing that type of girl. Or is it they pursue that type of girl on purpose because they know they can go all in but they will have an out at the end ultimately, that will be out of their control leaving them to feel righteous, slighted, and that all the ill feelings they now harbor to be not their fault. And from those ill feelings they base their claim on reality.
Summer has an irresistible 60s style to her hair and dress. Her blue eyes shine out from under dark bangs. She makes the first move. All things that further enforce Tom’s belief that he can change her into the girlfriend type.
The end of the movie is perhaps too much out of type for the previously established realness throughout the movie. It is clever, but a bit not real and keeping in the character of the movie. Or is it? There need not be much time between pursuits of true love with people like Tom. The true believer in true love is always looking.
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