First off I must confess, I do not like Rom/coms, or Rom/Drams, I would much rather watch anything and I mean anything than these genres, I feel they are stupid, unbelievable, mostly appeal to the female audience who like the unrealistic happy endings and when the guy says sweet nothings in the girl's ear, gag me with a fork....
BUT this movie is not your conventional Romantic Comedy, it's your unconventional, romantic comedy that actually keeps it real and tangible, sorry for all you "The Note Book" movie lovers out there who expect sweet, happy tearful endings.
Plot is simple, boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, girl dumps boy; Tom (Joseph Gordon Levitt) is a Greeting card writer whose hidden talent is architecture, meets secretary Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and we go through his trials and tribulations to win her heart. He's the hopeless romantic, she is the free spirit, wanting to keep things casual, doesn't want to fall into the norms of a relationship. Where Tom questions this relationship, where she wants to keep it simple and not muddle things. So 500 Days of Summer chronicles the bittersweet beginnings, the sudden break up and all the crazy/ befuddled/ frustrating things that go on in between.
Basically that is the plot, what works is how it is presented, we do not get a linear plot like all those other contrite unreal romantic comedies, what we get is a non linear plot that goes back and forth between Tom and Summer's relationship from the Highs to the Lows. This is refreshing. Where one scene after Tom spent the night with her we see him walk out of the building all smiles the next day (this is his High), as if he can take on the world, he is unstoppable, as if he is glowing, and through out the whole scene we see him do a dance number, shaking hands with people, strangers high fiving him, patting him on the back, he looks in a window and an image of Han Solo looks right back at him... showing him he is the epitome of cool, (what makes it so real is who hasn't felt like that, after spending a night with the one they love, feeling great the next day)
Then we see his Lows, his self loathing, his obsessing on why did they break up, that he thought for sure she was the one, it's gut wrenching real, because again we've been there and done that or had it done to us.
They try to maintain a friendship, Summer invites him to a party and Tom accepts and what we get from this scene is so unique: Where Tom hopes the Universe will finally align itself and his expectations coincide with his reality. A split screen of Tom walking up the stairs to her Apartment, the caption on the Left reads, Expectations, caption on the right reads, Reality, again we as viewers can relate to this scene as it unfolds, Tom's expectations are he and Summer some how reconnect, he gives her a small gift in the form of a book, there's the catching of each others eyes; holding the gaze, the hug, the gentle touching, the laughing, shared moments by themselves, but then he and us viewers are thrust into the reality of the situation. There is no rekindling, she thanks him for the book, through out the party he feels like a stranger in a strange land and he leaves the party in disbelief, in agony, heart broken.... much like what would happen in real life, as we always run through our heads what we think will happen and think will be the perfect evening; finally going to tell her how you feel, you have that nice dinner planned, flowers, she'll be flattered and happy, and say she has the same feelings about you. Thinking it is bullet proof and then to have it all crashing down: either she says she doesn't feel the same way bout you, or she can't make that dinner date, or met someone else, etc etc etc, we so want those events to work and have it play over and over in our minds so the outcome is always positive that when the time comes does it rarely play to our expectations and we are thrust into cold reality. I just had to marvel at this particular scene because one it has happened to me numerous times and I am sure others could say the same thing, A brilliant scene indeed.
What makes this work is the chemistry between Levitt and Deschanel, Levitt playing the forlorn, hopeless, romantic, nice guy, while Deschanel plays Summer as the care free, beautiful, sexy, men take a second glance at her kind of girl, this relationship works so harmoniously even through the tough parts of the break up, we as viewers can't help but think that somehow they do stay together, that even I thought the typical Hollywood ending would come in and they get back together... but then it be classified as your conventional love story and that is not what the filmmakers and actors didn't want it to be, it's about that love is a cold hard bitch slap that we all have felt, which as I said earlier that we all can relate too.
Kudos to the great writing, and chemistry between the actors, making something so real, and honest it's hard to do in Hollywood when everyone wants to see a Sandra Bullock Rom/Com. We all see a little Tom in us and we've all had that one Summer; I guess the message of the movie is people come into your lives for a reason, whether it be friends or the "He's/ She's the one!" moment and it turns out it's not, and that relationships come and go, new ones will be forged, and just hold onto the memories of the old ones no matter how good or bad they were, somehow they made you who you are now, I feel that how it was for Tom's case.
A great movie I must say, worth checking out, what made it so real is because I think we've all been there and felt what Tom felt.