We're having a Hugo Weaving spotting competition at the festival. Whoever sees Hugo Weaving most frequently at the festival wins, and gets to be master of the universe.
So far, I'm losing.
500 Days of Summer
Films have, in the past, capitalized on the delightfulness of Zooey Deschanel, but 500 Days of Summer is the first to use it as a premise. Here, she plays Summer, a free spirited girl who catches the eye of Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt), a trained architect earning a living by working for card company. This is, at first glance, a romantic comedy, although that's not quite accurate. Tom falls for Summer, Summer seems to return his affections. But while Tom believes in true love and fate, Summer doesn't, nor does she even believe in giving their relationship a name.
The film is Marc Webb's debut feature. He comes from a music video background, and it shows; it's all very visually impressive. There's also some experimentation in storytelling: the film is out of order, with each sequence preceded by a title card of which day of Tom knowing Summer it is. Scenes of his happiest times are put next to his worst. There are other flourishes: Tom finds himself in a French New Wave film; there's a split-screen sequence where Tom's expectations are played right alongside what actually happens.
If this sounds gimmicky, it is. It's not enough to sink the film (and, in the case of the fantasy dance number to Hall and Oates, it can be brilliant) but 500 Day's strengths aren't in its postmodern techniques. The film captures emotions perfectly: that lift from falling for someone; the heartbreak when they don't fall back. It captures these emotions as well as recent films such as Eternal Sunshine and Before Sunset have. When most films labeled as "romantic" "comedies" fall about as far from romance as the Hostel films and are as authentic about relationships as Teletubbies is about rural British life, this comes as a refreshing change.
Gorden Levitt doesn't need to prove himself an excellent actor after Brick and Mysterious Skin, but here he shows he can carry a crowd pleasing film, while Deschanel is wonderful – she'd have to be, as only M. Night Shyamalan can make her otherwise. The films biggest failing comes from Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber's script. It's far from terrible, but it doesn't soar. One-liners should be snappier, supporting characters should be more fleshed out. Tom is the lead character here, and everything we see is through his subjective viewpoint, but we never properly get to know Summer, despite the movie being named for her. It's still well handled enough to be an enjoyable film, but if more effort had been put into these elements rather than the scripts stylistic choices, 500 Days of Summer could have been great rather than merely good.
7/10
By the way, 500 Days of Summer really is Stuff White People Like: the movie. It doesn't belong on the list; it is the list.
Lessons Learned
- Hugo Weaving prefers Norwegian nazi zombies to capital-I Indie romance.
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