August 28: (500) Days of Summer

While waiting for the Padres' game to begin today, I found myself toying around with forgotten features on my computer. One of these features was the movies option of my iTunes. I rarely watch films from my computer so there isn't any reason for me to use the feature. In February of this year, however, I took a trip home to San Diego and I had put a few movies on my iPod via the feature for the flight. Today, I was reminded of (500) Days of Summer. I clicked on the small icon with the intentions of watching a short clip and ended up watching the entire film. I could have retrieved the Blu-ray disc and enjoyed the movie on a larger screen and in full surround sound, but I was already too involved.

I love everything about this perfectly cast film from the fantastic soundtrack to the non-linear way of telling the story. Directed by the relatively unknown Marc Webb, it's about a young man that meets, who he thinks, is his soul mate and the five hundred days she spends in and around his life. The story jumps around and is told in one-day segments which are marked by the corresponding day in the relationship. In one vignette, the audience meets Summer (played by the lovely Zooey Deschanel) but the next might be of how Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) feels three hundred days later. The movie jumps around like this for its duration, but it's still a joy to watch the blossoming and crumbling relationship of these two characters.

In addition to the nontraditional way of telling the story, Webb uses unique ways of keeping the film feeling different from any other film. In one scene, he splits the screen between Tom's expectations of how how he thinks a party will play out and the reality of how the party actually progresses. With this style, the audience can easily watch simultaneously as the two shots take a drastic change in direction from the same starting point.

Upon viewing the film for the first time, I came straight home to my computer where I proceeded to download the magnificent soundtrack. Webb takes the audience on an emotional journey that is enriched beautifully by the likes of Regina Spektor, the Smiths, and Deschanel's own She and Him. As great as the soundtrack may be with its lesser known bands, it's the big-named Hall and Oats that steals the show with a terrific dance sequence at the climax of Tom and Summer's relationship.

Every once in a while a film comes out that is so different and refreshing that you can't stop thinking about it and and (500) Days of Summer was one of those films for me. If you are unable to remember a special person from your past while watching it, you might not have a soul. The music is great. The story is great. And the film as a whole is simply terrific.