(500) Days of Summer

Now, I'm not usually a man for soppy RomComs, but this one was different. This was that film that makes you feel good. This was that film that wants you to do something different. This was the film that I absolutely loved.

In the words of the narrator, this is a story of boy meets girl. But it isn't a love story. And that's exactly what it was. It didn't follow the predictability of most boy meets girl films. It's the film of boy meets girl that follows the true life script, rather than the happy-go-lucky script where everything falls together, something that was summed up perfectly in the "Expectations meet Reality" scene. Exactly what normal boy meets girl films are. Expectations. But this was a true, reality film, that broke the barrier and is up there with the best RomComs of my generation.

The film was beautifully shot, with split screens and the jumping back and for between the 500 days was a stroke of genius. It was so simplistic, so creative, so brilliant.

But this was more of a Com, than a Rom. Another way it defied all the odds of a typical boy meets girl story. The typical story follows the Rom, but this was the Com of it. Winning performances from the two leads, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), made it the Com. You could not have put a better pairing on screen if they were a real life couple. It was as if they'd known eachother since they were small children, laughing and joking together like there was no tomorrow. But what makes the film is that neither of them are the typical "jock" or "cheerleader". They're the normal, shy ones that realise they're in love with someone because of who they are, not by the size of their penis/breasts. Bah, this review has gone all soppy.

The film was very funny indeed. A number of one liners made me laugh out loud. One particularly memorable line is "Roses are red, Violets are blue...fuck you, whore." That had me laughing. For a fair while, truth be told. Also, Tom's work compatriot-come-drinking buddy McKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) is brilliant, with at least 1 classic line in every scene he's in.

My only gripe of the film is that I was slightly confused by the goings-on during the leaping back and for, thinking that what went on at 350 days (just a made up day, I can't remember when I got confused) was contradictory to what happened a matter of days before that. Sadly, we can't all be perfect, but this was almost perfect. Almost.

8.8/10