(500) Days of Summer (2009)

"This is not a love story. This is a story about love."

Directed by Marc Webb
Produced by Mason Novick, Jessica Tuchinsky, Mark Waters, Steven J. Wolfe
Written by Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
Narrated by Richard McGonagle
Music by Mychael Danna, Rob Simonsen
Cinematography: Eric Steelberg
Edited by Alan Edward Bell
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date: 7 August 2009 (United States)
Running time: 95 minutes
Country: United States
Budget: $7.5 million
Box office: $60.7 million

"500 Days of Summer" is a romantic comedy-drama film directed by Marc Webb and written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. The story is about a guy who falls in love with the wrong girl.

Cast

• Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen
• Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn
• Geoffrey Arend as McKenzie
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Rachel Hansen
• Matthew Gray Gubler as Paul
• Clark Gregg as Vance
• Patricia Belcher as Millie
• Rachel Boston as Alison
• Minka Kelly as Autumn
• Maile Flanagan as Rhoda
• Yvette Nicole Brown as Vance's New Secretary
• Olivia Bagg as Young Summer
• Richard McGonagle as Narrator

"(500) Days of Summer" came to me in right time: I was searching for a film about unrequited love and that movie was one of the most recommended. And yes, it turned out really interesting in fact - even not sappy. Tom is a romantic who believes in eternal love. One day he meets Summer and decides she's his one and only. Therefore he's been trying to be with her suffering for five hundred days before his world outlook changes. 

That film became Mark Webb's feature length debut and, frankly speaking, it was a good start. A conception with a calendar was unusual and all characters' mixed feelings looked natural.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is my recent discovery: his acting is nice to watch. My lovely Zooey Deschanel's performance is exciting as always and the question is not only her wonderful blue eyes.

Advantages

• Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn
• Chloë Grace Moretz as Rachel Hansen
• The unusual plot
• The calendar

Disadvantages

• Destructive relationships

"Strangenesses"

• Love depends on feelings, not on a person

Clue Moments

• Meeting with Summer
• Breaking off
• Meeting with Autumn

I'm not a fatalist but the idea of everlasting love with one person is capturing. Imagine: one predetermined chance may define your destiny. A little scary, in my opinion, to realise that everything in your life depends on the high powers. Mistaking, disappointing, solving problems, becoming better - these mixed things are more thrilling than just predicting. Anything can happen and becoming aware of this makes us feel alive.

Soundtracks

1. Mychael Danna - A Story of Boy Meets Girl
2. Us - Regina Spektor Us
3. The Smiths - There Is a Light That Never Goes Out
4. The Black Lips - Bad Kids
5. The Smiths - Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want (2007 Remastered Version)
6. Doves - There Goes the Fear
7. Hall & Oates - You Make My Dreams
8. The Temper Trap - Sweet Disposition
9. Carla Bruni - Quelqu`un M`a Dit
10. Feist - Mushaboom
11. Regina Spektor - Hero
12. Simon & Garfunkel - Bookends
13. Wolfmother - Vagabond 
14. Mumm-Ra - She`s Got You High
15. Meaghan Smith - Here Comes Your Man
16. She & Him - Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want (Album Version)

Quotations

* * *

Narrator: This is a story of boy meets girl. The boy, Tom Hansen of Margate, New Jersey, grew up believing that he'd never truly be happy until the day he met the one. This belief stemmed from early exposure to sad British pop music and a total mis-reading of the movie 'The Graduate'. The girl, Summer Finn of Shinnecock, Michigan, did not share this belief. Since the disintegration of her parent's marriage she'd only love two things. The first was her long dark hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and not feel a thing. Tom meets Summer on January 8th. He knows almost immediately she is who he has been searching for. This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.

* * *

Narrator: If Tom had learned anything... it was that you can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that's all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence... Tom had finally learned, there are no miracles. There's no such thing as fate, nothing is meant to be. He knew, he was sure of it now.

* * *

Tom: I love how she makes me feel, like anything's possible, or like life is worth it.

* * *

Tom: Do you ever do this, you think back on all the times you've had with someone and you just replay it in your head over and over again and you look for those first signs of trouble?

* * *

Rachel Hansen: Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate.

* * *

Rachel Hansen: Look, I know you think she was the one, but I don't. Now, I think you're just remembering the good stuff. Next time you look back, I, uh, I really think you should look again.

* * *

Summer: I just... I just woke up one day and I knew.
Tom: Knew what?
Summer: ...What I was never sure of with you.

* * *

Tom: It's these cards and the movies and the pop songs, they're to blame for all lies and the heartache, everything.

* * *

Tom: People don't realize this, but loneliness is underrated.

* * *

Tom: Look, we don't have to put a label on it. That's fine. I get it. But, you know, I just... I need some consistency.
Summer: I know.
Tom: I need to know that you're not gonna wake up in the morning and feel differently.
Summer: And I can't give you that. Nobody can.

* * *

Paul: Robin is better than the girl of my dreams. She's real.

* * *

Tom: You don't want to be named as anybody's girlfriend, and now you're someone's wife?

* * *

Summer: Well, you know, I guess it's 'cause I was sitting in a deli and reading Dorian Gray and a guy comes up to me and asks me about it and... now he's my husband.
Tom: Yeah. And... so?
Summer: So, what if I'd gone to the movies? What if I had gone somewhere else for lunch? What if I'd gotten there 10 minutes later? It was - it was meant to be. And... I just kept thinking... Tom was right.
Tom: No.
Summer: Yeah, I did.

* * *

Tom: Nobody loves Ringo Starr.
Summer: That's what I love about him.

* * *

Tom: What happened? Why - why didn't they work out?
Summer: What always happens. Life.

* * *

Tom: Either she's an evil, emotionless, miserable human being, or... she's a robot.

* * *

Summer: You weren't wrong, Tom. You were just wrong about me.

* * *

Tom: What happens if you fall in love?
Summer: Well, you don't believe that, do you?
Tom: It's love. It's not Santa Claus.

* * *

Narrator: Most days of the year are unremarkable. They begin, and they end, with no lasting memories made in between. Most days have no impact on the course of a life. May 23rd was a Wednesday.

* * *

Vance: Misery, sadness, loss of faith, no reason to live... This is perfect for you.

* * *

Tom: It's official. I'm in love with Summer.
[while Montage of Summer plays]
Tom: I love her smile. I love her hair. I love her knees. I love how she licks her lips before she talks. I love her heart-shaped birthmark on her neck. I love it when she sleeps.

* * *

Partygoer: So Tom, what is it that you do?
Tom: I uh, I write greeting cards.
Summer: Tom could be a really great architect if he wanted to be.
Partygoer: That's unusual, I mean, what made you go from one to the other?
Tom: I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that lasts forever, like a greeting card.

* * *

Narrator: Tom walked to her apartment, intoxicated by the promise of the evening. He believed that this time his expectations would align with reality...

* * *

Narrator: There's only two kinds of people in the world. There's women, and there's men. Summer Finn was a woman.

* * *

Tom: This is lies. We are liars. Think about it. Why do people buy cards? It's not because they want to say how they feel. People buy cards because they can't say they feel or are afraid to. And we provide the service that let's them off the hook. You know what? I say to hell with it. Let's level with America. Or at least let them speak for themselves. Right?

* * *

Narrator: The quote in Summer Finns Yearbook was a line from one her favorite bands, Belle and Sebastian. It reads "Color my life with the chaos of trouble."

* * *

Narrator: For Tom Hansen, this was the night where everything changed. That wall Summer so often hid behind - the wall of distance, of space, of casual - that wall was slowly coming down. For here was Tom, in her world... a place few had been invited to see with their own eyes. And here was Summer, wanting him there. Him, no one else.

* * *

Vance: I've been happily married for 30 years. She's the light that guides me home. Yes, it is from one of our cards. No, someone else wrote it. Doesn't make it less true.

* * *

Paul: [Opens the door to Tom's apartment] We didn't know who to call.
McKenzie: It's Amanda Heller all over again.
Rachel Hansen: You did the right thing.

* * *

Vance: Misery. Sadness. Loss of Faith. No reason to Live... This is perfect for you.

* * *

Tom: Hey, Summer.
Summer: Hi.
Tom: How was your weekend?
Summer: It was *good*.

* * *

McKenzie: Methinks the lady doth protest too much.
Summer: The lady dothn't. There's no such thing as love. It's a fantasy.
Tom: Well, I think you're wrong.
Summer: Okay. Well... What is it that I'm missing then?
Tom: I think you know it when you feel it.
Summer: I guess we can just agree to disagree.

* * *

You may see the trailer here.

Plot: 7/10

Entertainment: 7/10

Acting: 8/10

Originality: 8/10

Music and Sound: 7/10

7/10