500 Days of Summer Review
I haven’t felt this emotionally vulnerable in a long time, and at first glance I’m worried about the consequences of writing this. Also at first glance: Girls will love this movie. Guys will feel as if their heart has been ripped from their bodies and converted into celluloid.
This movie cut me deep. At first glance it’s a pretty standard boy-meets-girl romcom with a cute trailer and lots of indie artists you’ll love on the soundtrack. And you get lots of indie music and happy joyous moments that make you remember all the happy joyous moments you’ve had with that one girl you still kinda can’t get over, who of course I met one summer, and I’m not going to say anymore lest she get freaked out and think I’m not over it. I am over it. But this movie does such a great job of capturing all the moments that happen from the time you first see her, through the courtship, the pain, the loss, the grief, how it fucks with your job, your life, and how you assign all these grand hopes and dreams to something that was never really anything at all, when you finally, inevitably accept that truth that it just wasn’t going to happen, and you can’t force it through willpower or wanting it enough or elaborately choreographed dance sequences even though her smile totally makes you want to break out into an elaborately choreographed dance sequence.
This movie, despite having a “this is totally fictional” disclaimer at the beginning, rang truer with me on an emotional level than anything I’ve ever seen. I didn’t cry. I’ve seen movies that have made me cry and the movie simply isn’t going for those emotional moments that make the tears well up. But when you first start swooning for a girl, and you try to make it into what you want, even though it’s only what it is… those are the moments that it captures, flawlessly and effortlessly. I don’t know what higher praise I can give than to say that the writing, acting, and direction of this film tell the story at such a level that it resonated with the very core of who I am as a formerly lovestruck guy in my early 20s, as I’m sure you can tell by the fact that I just sprayed emotion all over the page. If you’ve ever had feelings for someone, this movie is unmissable.