summer encounter

I've just noticed how the romance genre has been blown off the map of the film world hasn't it? We don't have any more movies like Gone With The Wind we have romantic comedies like Manhattan instead. I don't know why that really is. I've been searching my head for the past hour thinking about it and the only thing I can think of is that, maybe it's more realistic? After WWII a lot of American films took a lot of hints from Italian Neo-Realism in which life wasn't fair, every act was random and nothing ever ends. In our post WWII cynical view we must have viewed this as truth and stopped all together with romance films were the man sweeps the woman off her feet and then they travel into the sunset, maybe having sex on a horse.

It's not that realistic is it and I know my description doesn't really help any. But in the light hearted days of today, people have been working with the romance genre in different ways, romantic comedies, romantic comedy musicals, romantic zombie comedies and with (500) Days of Summer we have come to the conclusion that, we should be able to have our cake and eat it too. (500) Days of Summer does something that I'm sure has been done before, and adds cynicism or 'realism' (to you people out there who no longer believe in hope and wonder) to a romance film. He doesn't get the girl, the film is full of heartbreak and there is oh so much whining throughout much of the film to show that life is just not fair.
Now that you know what you're getting yourself into, let me expand.

(500) of Days Summer mostly centers around Tom who has just broken up with Summer. For about 80 days or so Tom just keeps thinking and thinking about Summer and every little thought that he has the audience experiences. We see how he's feeling through musical numbers to paintings, we see through his mind's eye when he thinks constantly about Summer, his opinions about Summer changes rapidly at first there is only non-withholding love for Summer, and then towards the middle of the film, there is only hatred for Summer. This peek into Tom's mind to see how he feels really helps us connect with the character on an emotional level and most of the musical numbers and solo motion fantasies really drag us into the film as well. So when Summer breaks his heart, we sympathize with Tom AND THAT(important part) is the greatest strength of the film. Without these charming break-away scenes that let us share a feeling with Tom I think the film would be doomed. The entire time we would be watching this man, complain and whine about how he doesn't have this girl back who throughout the entire relationship doesn't really seem that into him and somewhat malevolent, the audience would be slouching in their chairs waiting for something to happen that will actually make them give a crap about these characters. Besides the fact that the both look like Barbie Dolls you would see at Urban Outfitters.

Well if these little musical numbers and fantasies are the only things that are worth talking about or remembering; isn't the film very hollow? (You might say if you were really into this film review) In a way it is, but it's not so hollow that is practically an episode of Scrubs (I'm a fan). The reason I talked about realism earlier is because the film has so much realism that it's hard to ignore. The realism makes this movie seem like a story you would hear on This American Life or read on someone's blog about breakups. The story is very cemented in realism and in a way that's really engrossing. Everyone's had a bad break up before and everyone knows what it's like. So when you add some surreal imagery like musical numbers along with a hyper-realistic story the film itself seems to display the act of love as something magical and fantastic that only can be described without words and only with images and music. This works tenfold and whenever one of the films problems get in the way the audience will mostly forgive it with because the film is so cute, funny and charmingly experimental.

But going back to what I just touched on (that's what she said?), (500) Days of Summer has its flaws. Some big ones. Their flaws so big that if this was a mumblecore indie, critics would have given it a crucifixion before it even his the streets.

The flaw that I need to talk about the most out of all of the others are the two lame best friend characters of Tom. They're not even really best friends, they're soundboards, they're only there to be with Tom when he needs to express his current feeling about Summer. They don't really seem to have personalities other than, "Guy Friend." (If you don't know what characteristic I'm talking about, let me help you out, the 'guy friend' character is a character archetype that has really erupted in popularity over the past couple years. It's the friend you have that's kind of rude, but lovable, but you're also embarrassed to be around him at the same time.) While this character archetype can work in certain films it can feel out of place in others and they feels very out of place in (500) Days of Summer. Due to the fact that (500) Days of Summer is treated with such realism I had trouble suspending my disbelief that the only reason Mackenzie and Paul were even in this film is because they didn't want to make Tom seem like a looser with no friends. So the writers gave him friends that were shallow representations of character with 'guys just being guys' mentalities and thought the material wrote itself. I know I'm being a little overly mean here, but you have to understand how upsetting this is. In this film I saw two characters constantly struggling with being in a relationship that they're nervous about and as soon as something exceedingly intimate happens, here come the Brahs! Ready for some Mario Kart and Madden on the Gamecube. BRO, DON'T FORGET THE SHIRNOFFS!

My next criticism may be one that is a little extreme but I still consider it a flaw but who knows it may only be worth mentioning to myself. I found some of the scenes to be a little too much like music videos. Now I've seen Marc Web's music videos and while I wouldn't call him a music video making god like others (SPIKE JONZE I LUUUUUUVVVV UUUUUU!!!111) he does have a talent for timing and he's creative as well. But you could be as creative as Salvador Dahli and it wouldn't stop you from suffering from the usual problems that undergo when a music video director transfers to a filmmaker. The signs are simple, there a plethora of montages, a lot of scenes have music blasting over the dialogue, and in scenes it feels like too much time went into certain shots accompanied with music that you just don't feel were needed in the film.

But while (500) Days of Summer does suffer from some problems, we should be lucky that it's not worse. Most films that wear the romance label seem to have more crippling problems, some scenes felt like music videos or a character or two was a little bit annoying. (500) Days of Summer is a fine film to see this Summer (HA!) and we should be lucky its around. It's charming, creative, intimate, funny and a great story to hear. It's just sad it's not perfect.

P.S. Get ready for more films like this. This film became way too popular too quickly and that means that in two years we're going to see a lot of films that are all cynical romantic comedies. Ugh. I hate trendsetters.