500 Days of Summer

The narrator notes, “This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront this is not a love story.” 500 Days of Summer is a captivating film about a supposed “no commitment” relationship. However, boy falls in love with girl, girl breaks boys heart, boy is the one disheveled over heartbreak. 500 Days of Summer progresses inconsecutively throughout a 500-day timeline based on the relationship (sometimes, lack thereof) of Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) and Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a girl and boy, working for a greeting card company.

Summer and Tom meet at work. They share an elevator bond over The Smiths, engage in a company outing of drunken karaoke and follow up with a copy room make out session. As a result, their relationship begins.

Summer questions the reality of love while Tom is a firm believer in love. Thus, Summer consistently informs Tom that she is not interested in a committed relationship. Though, Tom falls head over heals for Summer’s vintage-cute appearance and spontaneously attractive persona. It appears that Summer shares a mutual feeling most of the time, but as relationships have their ups and downs the film makes sure to illustrate and emphasize the lustingly romantic scenes versus the stalemate relationship struggles.

Personally, I fell in love with the ideal romantically silly scenes featuring a rousing game of shouting “PENIS” in escalating voices and playing “house” in Ikea. The post-sex musical-esque dance scene to Hall & Oates “You Make My Dreams” is by far the uproarious highlight of the film. Well, that and the Sweet and Shower fun .

I also feel like the unique structure of the film made it far more enjoyable, exciting and a lot different from your average chick flick. The inconsequential 500-day order kept you anxious for which day was going to be featured next and what was going to happen. Also, near the end of the film there is a split-screen scenario of Tom’s expectations vs. reality which is really funny and sad. This film loves to play with your emotions.

Additionally, I give the soundtrack five stars. The songs are always miraculously in tune with the concurrent scenes. The songs strongly manage to emphasize the slowed suffering relationship scenes, create irony at the characters expense and enhance the upbeat loveliness of love. The second time I saw the film I paid more attention to the lyrics – I decided it was okay to stray away from the characters for a little bit to observe the brilliance of the soundtrack, you should too. It features songs from Regina Spektor, The Smiths, Hall & Oates, Feist and many more. It is a great feeling when you can listen to the soundtrack and visualize scenes from the film.

Having seen the film twice already, I highly recommend it! As an added bonus 500 Days of Summer is significant other friendly and honestly, who doesn’t love Zooey Deschanel?