(500) Days Of Summer – Movie Review

movie reviewEveryone, at one point in his or her life, wants to be the hero of his or her own personal love story. That’s at least what I hope. Because otherwise it would be a much darker world out there. It’s dark enough out there, wouldn’t you agree?

The movie is about a young guy working in the creative department of a greeting card company. Actually a typical boy meets girl scenario. Suddenly a new girl appears on the scene and he falls in love. Throughout the movie we witness all the things that happen between these two people. All the little things that define what love actually is. Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play the two. Watching these two interact with each other looks so natural, that you really see some talent happening there. What we see isn’t all the sugar of love though. We also see the darker parts.

Eventually the girl breaks up with the guy. Now we can see some real talent going on. J. G. Levitt puts so much heart and depth into his character that you can almost feel the pain with him. And when it comes to the girl, you can never feel angry about her. You never hate her. She cleared up her intentions right from the start. It’s actually the boys’ fault going right into the trap. He thought he could make her really love him. And for a while this certainly worked for both of them. There was a spark… but it never turned into an eternal flame. And when it’s over, we see our boy struggling with himself, life and pretty much everything else. Eventually he musters up all his strength and tries to move on. And that’s all you have left in such a situation. And eventually you will succeed and life goes on.

This is a just a beautiful movie. And no, I’m not a romantic movie fan. Certainly, it got its romantic moments and the chemistry between both our actors works amazing well. But I wouldn’t even put this movie into a romantic genre or category. It’s more a movie about a typical lesson of life. How to live through it. How to deal with it. How to learn from it. Something we all have to go through at some point. The movie does all that in a so suprisingly fresh way that there never is a “please don’t go there!” moment. Like I said… there is not much sugar. It’s kept pretty realistic and natural. This movie may also have one of the best endings I’ve seen in a while. Everyone who’s not smiling when seeing it MUST BE A ROBOT!

On a technical level it’s all top work there. The acting of all the people involved is very sound and natural. Camera work, Editing and Soundtrack work nicely and create a really nice flow. One component I don’t want to miss is the great portion of humour they packed into it. There were quite a few moments when I had to laugh. So there is something for everyone in it. An almost perfect mixture of ‘good movie’ ingedients.

So yeah… if you’re a lonely person… watch this to keep your hope alive! If you’re together with someone… watch this because it’s a good and entertaining movie with some lessons that you may appreciate some day. Either way, it’s a good one. Check it out!

8/10

PS: Yeah, there might be one or two “please don’t go there” moments. But I liked those, because they turned out nicely and… again, made me smile or even laugh a bit.

(500) Day Of Summer on IMDb

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