500 Days of Summer

The only thing that I love about transcontinental flights is movies on my personal screen. The 14-hour flight from Qatar to Washington was made so much shorter by the four movies that I watched on it. The only one that stuck in my mind 500 Days of Summer (5DS).

The Review

5DS is certainly an unexpected love story. This post-modern look at relationships is grounded in reality. The premise is simple – boy meets girl, boy falls in love and the girl..well she does love him..but not so much. Yes, that’s the 21st century for you.

Tom, played by the charming Joseph Gordon-Levitt, works in a greeting card company, believes in soulmates and true love. Summer,  who joins as a temp is soon the object of everyone’s attention. Tom is clearly smitten and luckily finds his interest reciprocated. The movie continues in a non-linear fashion showing snippets of their relationships at different times – as it grows and as it falls apart.  Summer has always been clear that she does not want to fall for a serious relationship but you see her getting involved anyway. One part that I did not like was a lack of reason on why their relationship fails. Summer abruptly pulls away – she clearly has not found what she was looking for. But why?

The story is narrated by Tom. Marc Webb uses these interesting color tones in the direction that makes everything look so vintage. Or maybe it’s just the costume design. The cinematography is very pleasing. The soundtrack fits well with the movie.

Is 500 Days..worth the watch?

The movie is bitter-sweet and very contemporary in its outlook. I thought the acting was brilliant. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is very cute and very believable as the ever-optimistic lover. Zooey Deschanel convincingly pulls a free-spirited, honest performance.

I would recommend this for at least a one time watch.

For more reviews on Movies & TV, go here.

Note: We are back from our long hiatus – a lot has happened in the past 3-4 weeks. We have relocated to a new continent and are now residing in the state of Missouri, USA. How long we are going to be here – well really don’t know 🙂