500 Days of Summer

    I finally got a chance to take a break from all this lousy shit goin' on, so I decided to visit the theatres (sorry for the Canadian spelling, I know). Of course, they were playing the mega-billion dollar seller Cameron's Avatar, but they didn't have any tickets. So fuck Avatar.


    But, the thing was, I wasn't in the mood for high-flying, shit-blowing adventure. The weather was ridiculously cold, and I needed something my fragile, stressed-out mind can handle. So decided to catch a weeday morning matinee and watch 500 Days of Summer.


    And I gotta admit, what I saw was a friggin' masterpiece.

  

Ah yes, you'd expect, typical love story. Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't.

    This movie is not a love story. It's a story about love. And before you say "bullshit," I can reason why. 500 Days takes you on a heartwarming journey surrounding a couple, analyzing the differences of the ways men and women each take to approach a relationship.


    The plot is unravelled from the guy's point of view, Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt (sorry for any misspellings throughout this review. It's obvious I didn't proofread this). Who believes in match-made-in-heaven's, and thinks of the girl, Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, as his true love. He doesn't have many unique characteristics, but he's just a humble guy we can all relate to.
   
    The girl, Summer, however, does not take relationships seriously. To her, being a "girlfriend" to anybody feels restricted. She does whatever she wants, goes whereever she goes, and doesn't look for any consequences. She believes that romance and true love is bullshit.

    To this point, it can sound like a pretty straightforward, cliche romantic comedy. But it's not. The movie itself is pretty light-hearted and humorous, but comedic moments are not in the spotlight: it's the characters.


    Guys can all agree they've dated girls like Summer at one point, and girls can all agree that they've dated guys like Tom.


    That's where the true power of the movie comes in.


    The story is so simple but dynamic that it pulls you in right away and helps you relate to the characters, through the up's and down's they go through.

    The movie's technique of reaching out to the audience is brilliant, with magnificent visuals and heartwarming sounds (the soundtrack is a feast to the ears). And the performances are great, too. I especially enjoyed Gordon-Levitt's performance, and how he put so much heart into an otherwise bland character. I gotta admit, his Golden Globe nomination is well-deserved. Deschanel's performance is just okay, but it sure is a long way from Yes Man and Surf's Up.

    I absolutely hate big-budget romantic comedy nowadays, with their intelligence-insulting, awkward sex jokes, penis jokes, and fart jokes. But this is one exception that stands out, by a mile. 500 Days of Summer is a beautiful film any way you look at it. It warms your heart, picks you up, and feeds you hope.


    Trust me when I say that if you haven't seen it, you're in for somethin' special.