Friday, 21 October 2011

People don't realise this, but loneliness is underrated.

500 Days of Summer
Rating: 2/5
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend and Chloe Grace Moretz.
Director: Marc Webb
Year: 2009

This was always a film with so much hype built up around it and most of my friends were saying how it was a good film and with a rotten tomatoes rating of 87% you can imagine that I held extremely high hopes for this film. I picked it up around a month ago in the HMV sale for £3 (bargain!) and now I know why. I have always been such a huge fan of Joseph Gordon-Levitt since 3rd Rock from the Sun, 10 Things I Hate About You etc. although I have never heard of Zooey Deschanel, apart from her Rimmel adverts. For whatever reason it just did not do a thing for me and I was very dissapointed with this film.

500 Days of Summer follows Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a trained architect who works at a greeting card company and is introduced to the new assistant to his boss called Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). The film is taken from Tom's point of view of the relationship and jumps from various days within the 500 day span of Tom and Summer's relationship. Some of the events include the two lovers going to see The Graduate in the cinema and afterwards they break up around day 290, which Tom does not take very well and so his friends call in Tom's younger sister Rachel (Chloe Grace Moretz) to help him cope. Summer then quits the greeting card company and while at the wedding of a co-worker, Summer invites Tom to her apartment for a party. While at this party it is revealed that Summer is engaged as Tom sees the engagement ring on her finger. Tom enters a deep depression and eventually quits his job and makes the healthy decision of rededicating himself to his architecture. The film ends when Tom attends an interview and meets a girl who is also interviewing and as they introduce themselves it is revealed that her name is Autumn.

I did enjoy the beginning of the film and particuarly liked the scenes with a touch of comedy in them. I immediately liked the character of Tom and was really drawn to him, although I hated Summer. I felt that she was a selfish, cold hearted and complicated person. I understand that she made it clear that she didn't want a relationship with Tom but the way that she acted towards him throughout certain parts e.g. when looking at records and he is being attentive towards her, she does not even crack a smile once! It was at this point that I began looking at my watch as I was becoming more restless. Credit is due to Zooey Deschanel for portraying a character that most of the audience would turn against. I respect the creativity of the director and like the film's layout, it is refreshing to see a change from the typical beginning - middle - end layout. I watched this film with my boyfriend and I could tell throughout the film that he was not impressed, I tried to bear with it but found myself losing interest and after the film had finished I found myself feeling quite down - it left me with a rather bitter taste in my mouth.

I don't actually have much else to say on this film except that I didn't enjoy it and felt really let down after having such high expectations. 

Good Points: The beginning, the acting from the two lead actors and a few touches of comedy here and there.

Bad Points: The plot of the film, the Summer character and the film as a whole. I just didnt enjoy it.

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