Throughout the years there is a certain brand of movie that has gone through a series of different classifications; drama, romantic comedy, and the more recent, and commonly known title, the chick flick. Despite the name of the genre, the films are usually fairly straightforward: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back and all the while the movie is made to make men out to be unfeeling, thoughtless and self-absorbed until they see the error of their ways and fix themselves for the girl so they can live happily ever after.
500 Days of Summer has taken that mold, kicked it in the teeth, and has dared to make something different; and it’s good.
Here we have a movie that has taken the cliche of movies having the happily ever after and threw it out the window and made a movie based on situations that are real and happen more often than not.
Right off the bat the narrator (who is NOT Morgan Freeman, sad to say) ensures us that this is not a love story, which is fairly accurate but not entirely true. The movie is focused around a romance, but instead of focusing on how Tom, the main character, wins the girl of his dreams, it actually focuses on how he had won her but now he has to learn how to adjust to her breaking up with him. And it’s all told through the male perspective, something rather unorthodox for this genre of movie. The movie plays out a day by day of Tom’s infatuation with Summer, a new girl at work who has drawn his attention from the moment he sees her. From there begins the male ritual of telling his buddies about her, being too nervous to ask her out, complaining about not asking her out and so on and so forth. The brilliance is in how pitifully true it is and really brings into light what wusses men can really be.
The movie courses through Tom’s wooing of Summer, the early days in a relationship when everything’s great, the eventual downfall of that romance and then Tom’s struggle with himself as he tries to convince himself to move on while deep down longing to have her back.
The days progress like miniature movies of their own which are then melded into one single movie, it’s brilliantly done as frequently the film bounces back and forth from reality to Tom’s emotions and imagination; there’s one particular scene where everything around Tom becomes a pencil drawing, I won’t say what happens next but the symbolism is sheer brilliance.
500 Days of Summer is pretty daring, as it has the nerve to break the mold and show that sometimes relationships fall apart not solely because of the men but it can be because of both parties, or, dare we say it, sometimes it’s even the fault of the woman. Plus it shows Tom’s outlook on the entire happening, alerting the world that, yes, men have insecurities just as much, if not more so in some cases, as women do. The film shows that men can be hurt and emotional as well, but it is done tastefully and doesn’t make Tom to be a snivelling dolt.
The characters are all realistic and any guy can easily place someone they know to each character. No one overacts their role or goes over the top, keeping the characters relevant and believable.
In addition to the dramatic aspects of the film, it is also not without its laughs. The comic relief is handled extremely well and in many cases is very subtle so not to take away from the importance of the story in the forefront. Guys will get good laughs out of the sheer accuracy of how the male characters act and will have the “oh man, it’s funny ‘cuz it’s true! We’re so lame!” aspect, but it’s handled so well that women will also connect with the humour and even relate to it themselves.
Final thoughts: great movie, brilliantly directed, superbly played by the actors, and led by a story that’s relevant and realistic. The movie ingeniously replays memories of the audience of their own relationships as Tom faces the good, the bad, the frustrating, the fun, the overjoyous and the heartbreaking elements that come with relationships.
And most importantly, 2009 finally has it’s good summer date movie.
See it on a date, see it with friends, see it by yourself, either way 500 Days of Summer is a cinematic diamond in what has been an overwhelmingly bland summer of movies.
I’m out
By Lee Clifford
Throughout the years there is a certain brand of movie that has gone through a series of different classifications; drama, romantic comedy, and the more recent, and commonly known title, the chick flick. Despite the name of the genre, the films are usually fairly straightforward: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back and all the while the movie is made to make men out to be unfeeling, thoughtless and self-absorbed until they see the error of their ways and fix themselves for the girl so they can live happily ever after.
500 Days of Summer has taken that mold, kicked it in the teeth, and has dared to make something different; and it’s good.
Here we have a movie that has taken the cliche of movies having the happily ever after and threw it out the window and made a movie based on situations that are real and happen more often than not.
Right off the bat the narrator (who is NOT Morgan Freeman, sad to say) ensures us that this is not a love story, which is fairly accurate but not entirely true. The movie is focused around a romance, but instead of focusing on how Tom, the main character, wins the girl of his dreams, it actually focuses on how he had won her but now he has to learn how to adjust to her breaking up with him. And it’s all told through the male perspective, something rather unorthodox for this genre of movie. The movie plays out a day by day of Tom’s infatuation with Summer, a new girl at work who has drawn his attention from the moment he sees her. From there begins the male ritual of telling his buddies about her, being too nervous to ask her out, complaining about not asking her out and so on and so forth. The brilliance is in how pitifully true it is and really brings into light what wusses men can really be.
The movie courses through Tom’s wooing of Summer, the early days in a relationship when everything’s great, the eventual downfall of that romance and then Tom’s struggle with himself as he tries to convince himself to move on while deep down longing to have her back.
The days progress like miniature movies of their own which are then melded into one single movie, it’s brilliantly done as frequently the film bounces back and forth from reality to Tom’s emotions and imagination; there’s one particular scene where everything around Tom becomes a pencil drawing, I won’t say what happens next but the symbolism is sheer brilliance.
500 Days of Summer is pretty daring, as it has the nerve to break the mold and show that sometimes relationships fall apart not solely because of the men but it can be because of both parties, or, dare we say it, sometimes it’s even the fault of the woman. Plus it shows Tom’s outlook on the entire happening, alerting the world that, yes, men have insecurities just as much, if not more so in some cases, as women do. The film shows that men can be hurt and emotional as well, but it is done tastefully and doesn’t make Tom to be a snivelling dolt.
The characters are all realistic and any guy can easily place someone they know to each character. No one overacts their role or goes over the top, keeping the characters relevant and believable.
In addition to the dramatic aspects of the film, it is also not without its laughs. The comic relief is handled extremely well and in many cases is very subtle so not to take away from the importance of the story in the forefront. Guys will get good laughs out of the sheer accuracy of how the male characters act and will have the “oh man, it’s funny ‘cuz it’s true! We’re so lame!” aspect, but it’s handled so well that women will also connect with the humour and even relate to it themselves.
Final thoughts: great movie, brilliantly directed, superbly played by the actors, and led by a story that’s relevant and realistic. The movie ingeniously replays memories of the audience of their own relationships as Tom faces the good, the bad, the frustrating, the fun, the overjoyous and the heartbreaking elements that come with relationships.
And most importantly, 2009 finally has it’s good summer date movie.
See it on a date, see it with friends, see it by yourself, either way 500 Days of Summer is a cinematic diamond in what has been an overwhelmingly bland summer of movies.
I’m out
By Lee Clifford
Throughout the years there is a certain brand of movie that has gone through a series of different classifications; drama, romantic comedy, and the more recent, and commonly known title, the chick flick. Despite the name of the genre, the films are usually fairly straightforward: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back and all the while the movie is made to make men out to be unfeeling, thoughtless and self-absorbed until they see the error of their ways and fix themselves for the girl so they can live happily ever after.
500 Days of Summer has taken that mold, kicked it in the teeth, and has dared to make something different; and it’s good.
Here we have a movie that has taken the cliche of movies having the happily ever after and threw it out the window and made a movie based on situations that are real and happen more often than not.
Right off the bat the narrator (who is NOT Morgan Freeman, sad to say) ensures us that this is not a love story, which is fairly accurate but not entirely true. The movie is focused around a romance, but instead of focusing on how Tom, the main character, wins the girl of his dreams, it actually focuses on how he had won her but now he has to learn how to adjust to her breaking up with him. And it’s all told through the male perspective, something rather unorthodox for this genre of movie. The movie plays out a day by day of Tom’s infatuation with Summer, a new girl at work who has drawn his attention from the moment he sees her. From there begins the male ritual of telling his buddies about her, being too nervous to ask her out, complaining about not asking her out and so on and so forth. The brilliance is in how pitifully true it is and really brings into light what wusses men can really be.
The movie courses through Tom’s wooing of Summer, the early days in a relationship when everything’s great, the eventual downfall of that romance and then Tom’s struggle with himself as he tries to convince himself to move on while deep down longing to have her back.
The days progress like miniature movies of their own which are then melded into one single movie, it’s brilliantly done as frequently the film bounces back and forth from reality to Tom’s emotions and imagination; there’s one particular scene where everything around Tom becomes a pencil drawing, I won’t say what happens next but the symbolism is sheer brilliance.
500 Days of Summer is pretty daring, as it has the nerve to break the mold and show that sometimes relationships fall apart not solely because of the men but it can be because of both parties, or, dare we say it, sometimes it’s even the fault of the woman. Plus it shows Tom’s outlook on the entire happening, alerting the world that, yes, men have insecurities just as much, if not more so in some cases, as women do. The film shows that men can be hurt and emotional as well, but it is done tastefully and doesn’t make Tom to be a snivelling dolt.
The characters are all realistic and any guy can easily place someone they know to each character. No one overacts their role or goes over the top, keeping the characters relevant and believable.
In addition to the dramatic aspects of the film, it is also not without its laughs. The comic relief is handled extremely well and in many cases is very subtle so not to take away from the importance of the story in the forefront. Guys will get good laughs out of the sheer accuracy of how the male characters act and will have the “oh man, it’s funny ‘cuz it’s true! We’re so lame!” aspect, but it’s handled so well that women will also connect with the humour and even relate to it themselves.
Final thoughts: great movie, brilliantly directed, superbly played by the actors, and led by a story that’s relevant and realistic. The movie ingeniously replays memories of the audience of their own relationships as Tom faces the good, the bad, the frustrating, the fun, the overjoyous and the heartbreaking elements that come with relationships.
And most importantly, 2009 finally has it’s good summer date movie.
See it on a date, see it with friends, see it by yourself, either way 500 Days of Summer is a cinematic diamond in what has been an overwhelmingly bland summer of movies.
I’m out
By Lee Clifford
Throughout the years there is a certain brand of movie that has gone through a series of different classifications; drama, romantic comedy, and the more recent, and commonly known title, the chick flick. Despite the name of the genre, the films are usually fairly straightforward: boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy wins girl back and all the while the movie is made to make men out to be unfeeling, thoughtless and self-absorbed until they see the error of their ways and fix themselves for the girl so they can live happily ever after.
500 Days of Summer has taken that mold, kicked it in the teeth, and has dared to make something different; and it’s good.
Here we have a movie that has taken the cliche of movies having the happily ever after and threw it out the window and made a movie based on situations that are real and happen more often than not.
Right off the bat the narrator (who is NOT Morgan Freeman, sad to say) ensures us that this is not a love story, which is fairly accurate but not entirely true. The movie is focused around a romance, but instead of focusing on how Tom, the main character, wins the girl of his dreams, it actually focuses on how he had won her but now he has to learn how to adjust to her breaking up with him. And it’s all told through the male perspective, something rather unorthodox for this genre of movie. The movie plays out a day by day of Tom’s infatuation with Summer, a new girl at work who has drawn his attention from the moment he sees her. From there begins the male ritual of telling his buddies about her, being too nervous to ask her out, complaining about not asking her out and so on and so forth. The brilliance is in how pitifully true it is and really brings into light what wusses men can really be.
The movie courses through Tom’s wooing of Summer, the early days in a relationship when everything’s great, the eventual downfall of that romance and then Tom’s struggle with himself as he tries to convince himself to move on while deep down longing to have her back.
The days progress like miniature movies of their own which are then melded into one single movie, it’s brilliantly done as frequently the film bounces back and forth from reality to Tom’s emotions and imagination; there’s one particular scene where everything around Tom becomes a pencil drawing, I won’t say what happens next but the symbolism is sheer brilliance.
500 Days of Summer is pretty daring, as it has the nerve to break the mold and show that sometimes relationships fall apart not solely because of the men but it can be because of both parties, or, dare we say it, sometimes it’s even the fault of the woman. Plus it shows Tom’s outlook on the entire happening, alerting the world that, yes, men have insecurities just as much, if not more so in some cases, as women do. The film shows that men can be hurt and emotional as well, but it is done tastefully and doesn’t make Tom to be a snivelling dolt.
The characters are all realistic and any guy can easily place someone they know to each character. No one overacts their role or goes over the top, keeping the characters relevant and believable.
In addition to the dramatic aspects of the film, it is also not without its laughs. The comic relief is handled extremely well and in many cases is very subtle so not to take away from the importance of the story in the forefront. Guys will get good laughs out of the sheer accuracy of how the male characters act and will have the “oh man, it’s funny ‘cuz it’s true! We’re so lame!” aspect, but it’s handled so well that women will also connect with the humour and even relate to it themselves.
Final thoughts: great movie, brilliantly directed, superbly played by the actors, and led by a story that’s relevant and realistic. The movie ingeniously replays memories of the audience of their own relationships as Tom faces the good, the bad, the frustrating, the fun, the overjoyous and the heartbreaking elements that come with relationships.
And most importantly, 2009 finally has it’s good summer date movie.
See it on a date, see it with friends, see it by yourself, either way 500 Days of Summer is a cinematic diamond in what has been an overwhelmingly bland summer of movies.
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