I‘ve fallen in love twice in my life.
The first time, I was a young teen and it was a silly, messy, dramatic, wonderful, exciting and ultimately painful experience. The second time is deeper and means more, it’s constantly exciting and takes over every inch of me, my life, my future. And while both of these two events have affected my life, they couldn’t be more different.
The only thing that both times have in common is that insane, whirlwind, obsessive beginning. The times when you figuratively and physically feel around each other, you work each other out - that need to touch, the urge to know everything about the other person, to probe their brain and eat up every word they utter.
I have seen love portrayed on screen before. Woody Allen has been witty with it. Teen comedies have been funny about it. Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan were both clever and funny with it. The Notebook drew the tears from it, Brief Encounter was heartbreaking with it and Gone With the Wind was dramatic about it. But I had never seen that fresh, new love properly portrayed on screen before. The craziness I felt in my head and chest, the rose tinted glasses I didn’t know I was wearing, the tentative trust and the life altering disappointments - I have never seen this put on screen until tonight.
This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story.
So says the omniscient narrator in the opening sequence of (500) Days of Summer. But he’s very wrong. This film is all about love. Love found, love lost, unrequited love and the complete mystery that is love.
Granted, it’s not a conventional love story. Tom (played by an annoyingly handsome Joseph Gordon-Levitt) believes in true love and destiny, the sort of cosmic power found only in the movies and cheap novels. His new co-worker Summer (played by the ever wonderful and official Culch.ie crush, Zooey Deschanel) also believes in destiny — that all relationships are destined to end in shattered hearts and broken dreams. Tom not only believes in the one, he believes that one is Summer, and his idealistic optimism sidesteps Summer’s cynicism, as we watch Tom fall deeply and very madly in love, despite the fact that she warns him on the outset that she is not looking for anything serious.
Told with a shattered chronology, the story hopscotches across the 500 days brilliantly because each scene is held together with tremendous emotional honesty, drawn from a stylish script. Simultaneously doe-eyed and profoundly pragmatic, just as love really is, the sharp screenplay is truth. That screenwriters Scott Neustadt and Michael Weber also wrote Pink Panther 2 is baffling.
And the film is shot amazingly by first time director Mark Webb. He has fantasy elements constantly spilling into the literal world, the visual style being linked to Tom’s rose-colored glasses. The flights of cinematic fancy include dream sequences, direct camera addresses, split screens and even a musical dance number.
I love this movie and I would urge every cynic, every lovestarved bitter man or woman, as well as every love crazed, puppydog-eyed moron to go see it too. This is what falling in love really is.
It’s a cracker of a film isn’t it? Kind of hard to believe that it’s a debut effort from Marc Webb. I thought it was very stylish-from the music to the clothing.
Plus Zooey and Joe are easy on the eye
Awesome article Darren
I want to see this so badly now!!
Excellent review - while this type of film wouldn’t be my first choice of viewing (not enough giant mutant space insects) I think I will def have a look.
I already wanted to see this, but you’ve thoroughly reinforced that Darren - great post!
I should have went along to see it. I will rectify that in the coming week.
Great review ya big soppy git!
Great review Darren, I couldn’t have put together how much I loved this film, it was lovely and different and as you said - so real!
Love Joe anyway, he’s a great actor but he was fantastic in this.
Go see it peoples, I’ll even go see it with you again
Excellent review, especially liked the first two paragraphs of your experiences, well expressed/written.
Pass me the bucket.
Oh Voodoo - It doesn’t even pull one tiny string in your little black heart? Just a little? Go on admit it!
I don’t know I haven’t seen it.
Darren’s post however, bleuuggghhh.
I agree with a lot of what you said and I can say watching it as a woman felt moments of dread because I could see what was happening, words I’d said before, crushing some poor bastard’s heart.
The film deals with the issue very evenly, the relationship doesn’t work but it doesn’t paint blame the way hollywood usually does, where ‘He’s clearly a bastard’ or ‘She’s truly a bitch’. Love can be humour and emotion and the film plays to that without making it something unobtainable and silver screen. Also the film has a cracking soundtrack of contemporary music that works with the story rather than for the ‘Coming to your music store soon!’ soundtrack. Regina Spektor ‘Us’ is the title track.
‘they’ll name a city after us
and later say it’s all our fault
then they’ll give us a talking to
then they’ll give us a talking to
cause they’ve got years of experience’
Which is what the film is, you’ve got to live to get the experience. Great movie though, great review, well done.
@Greenie Extremely stylish and confidently directed from a first timer. I’m already looking forward to seeing what he comes up with next.
@Dermot, @Peter, @Christian Thank you.
@Lottie I have my moments. They say you can’t know love until your heart has been broken.
@Niamh And did you shed a little tear or two?
@Seamus Cheers. The film was so good it inspired me.
@Voodoo Yep - I’m disgusting. Just be glad we didn’t launch Culch.ie before Valentine’s Day.
@Twisted That’s just it - even though the movie is heavily stylised, it deals with the subject matter in a realistic way. The rose tinted glasses and the shattering truth. I really should have spoken more about the soundtrack too. Some brilliantly chosen tunes. I would worry however that the music might date the film - most of the songs are just ticking the zeitgeist boxes.
Surprisingly Darren I didn’t shed any tears…I did have to suck a few in though
Saw this today, loved it. Didn’t want it to end and can’t wait to see it again. The one probably was with the last word of the whole film, but that’s nit-picking.
Very well reviewed.
Problem, not probably. Whoops!
@Radge Glad you enjoyed it. I liked that last word. It was a bdum-tsch moment and, like the rest of the film, it took the mush out of the ending by making us groan as an audience.
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