Rating of
2.5/4
Retelling of Every Other Film You've Seen Before
Allison - wrote on 07/17/09
A cutesy film that reeks of Annie Hall (structurally and story-wise), Garden State (instead of The Shins, it's The Smiths), and scenes from my own life (Summer telling Tom ahead of time that she didn't want anything serious, etc.), (500) Days of Summer is the new summer indie film that is designed to take the world by storm. Unfortunately, that's the problem. We've seen nearly everything all before.
When we get to Summer's apt., there are dolls that are reminiscent of the potato people Clementine designed in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The whole story is told out of order, like it's trying to be a cool hipster version of Memento.
The movie was so weird, because I felt like I lived through 85% of the same experiences myself. However, every once in awhile there would be a scene inserted from outer space AKA from who knows where.
My friend and I were also talking about how making the character of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) an architect was so contrived. I felt that the character he was based on (Scott Neustadter, one of the co-writers) was a screenwriter, but maybe he felt it was too unglamorous (to him), so he made the character be an architect instead (which is WAY more cliche).
Toward the middle of the film, I felt that if the movie kept up with its momentum, there would be a moment where I'd definitely just break down and cry. That never happened though. By the time the film ended, "I felt like, oh, that was pretty painless, considering."
Anyhow, it's mostly entertaining. However, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel aren't the most original actors in the world and their delivery showed they didn't have what it takes to become ultra-mega-stars. However, they are pretty decent in their craft. It's just kind of a wobbly thing for investors to finance a film with them in the lead.
Maybe if this film didn't try to be Garden State (which is so horribly out of date now), I'd give it a higher score.
