(500) Days of Summer: This film seems familiar

I'm concerned that critics have lowered their expectations. More on that later.

My wife and I saw this, wanting to see something more lighthearted (she blamed me for having to suffer through Moon, though I gave her the option on that one). I heard pleasant things about this one, and we gave it a shot. On the whole not a bad date night, but still ...

Synopsis: Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) are sitting on a park bench. He's in a suit. She has a wedding ring on. They smile pleasantly at each other. This was day 488. Flash backwards. Tom and Summer meet, and he starts falling for her.

The rest of the film consists of 500 days, give or take. We see Tom falling for Summer, then being dumped by her (this is not a spoiler - we are told up front that this is not a love story). We see the courtship, then his suffering after the breakup. We see ebb and flow, interspersed. And we finally get an explanation for the first scene, and what follows.

On the whole, it is an entertaining film, with literally a little something for everyone. This is not a love story, nor is it a story about love (as the poster would have us believe). This is a film about one man alone, Tom, a young man who has yet to figure out what love really is. It's a film that many men of my age can sympathize with. But it is a film that represents a time that, luckily, many of us have grown past.

Still, this is a largely one-sided view of things. Summer is not turned into a villain, mind you, also more a plot point. Don't expect fleshing out of her views, her background. We hear brief descriptions toward that end, but nothing of substance. Like Fight Club and the Apatow films, this is a film about guys by guys.

There are real upsides here. Gordon-Levitt performs quite sharply through the various phases of the his character - ever likable but not saintly. There are a few supporting characters - his buddies Mackenzie (Geoffrey Arend, of Supertroopers) and Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler of Criminal Minds) play the foils of men on either extreme. Rachel (Chloe Moretz) is the wise pre-teen sister that tries to guide Tom through his idealized relationships as they crash and burn. Vance (Clark Gregg, nice character actor) is the boss at the card-writing company where Tom and Summer work - not Tom's enemy, just the nice guy that a boss tries to be.

Deschanel, she is a different matter. She's cold. She's fairly one dimensional. Her diction gives an odd tweak, almost squeaky in a way that makes you wonder if she believes a word she says - or, worse yet, that she does believe the words she says. I don't think this is her fault. I think this is the character, and it serves the film's purpose.


Past that, you have to look at the crafters of the film. The writers are brand new and, sadly, have The Pink Panther 2 to their credit. The director, Marc Webb, has a background in music videos, which serves him well here for the fast-action series of clips are form the film. None have a wealth of experience. As a result, they borrow, heavily.

All during the film, I kept feeling like I had seen it before. The voiceovers used periodically remind me of Amelie. There is a fun musical number, the day after Tom and Summer have consummated, that is clearly all in Tom's head and homage to big musicals. There is a very funny sequence in which Tom sees himself in an artsy Bergman-like film (where Cupid tells him "better luck next time ... bitch") - reminiscent of Bergman as well as Amelie. There are throwbacks to Garden State, to Say Anything. All good films, but homage can only take you so far.

There will be a generation of young filmgoers for whom this might be an iconic film. For me, it's a good time but I don't know if it is a film that will linger. B+