500 Days of Summer - I’m confused… so love is . http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM

Admittedly, this film played on a number of nostalgic and often adolescent icons of my own summer of love—the smiths, creative dates, indie films, etc—but in the end, it left me with the sense that this was just another cliched pop-film mixed with some winsome charm attempting to depict the honesty of relationships.  Let me explain (some spoilers approaching btw).  There’s a break of a musical dance routine in the park, never-ending series of time shifts, and a trendy yet enjoyable soundtrack to accompany this hipster romance.  Nothing real original to see here folks.  In fact, it’s pretty much a satire on itself because in the end, boy may not get the girl, but boy gets a girl which means this movie itself is just another delusional tool to trick people into this thing called love.  

Another thing that was disappointing was that the attempt to show us a realistic look at romance fell way short of reality. Zooey Deschanel’s character, Summer, is basically just an insensitive tease who wasn’t honest about her feelings the whole time she was in this seemingly amazing romance.  Or, perhaps the film gave their relationship too much credit the whole time because it seemed as if there was always wonderful chemistry between them even when they weren’t “dating” anymore.  Whatever the case, the parts to love about this movie was the romance not the reality.  It was this reality, the reality that there isn’t always a mutual “love-at-first-sight” experience in life, that was not believable in this film.  Tash keenly compares this to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the observation that at least Gondre shows the true awfulness of their relationship whereas this film makes even an unsuccessful romance seem to good to be true.  I think if this film were truly going to say something honest, then (1) leave Zooey Deschanel single and happy (2) have Joseph Gordon-Levitt get dumped two more times only to settle for a mediocre wife and (3) show us just one truly terrible day of the 500 that would prove that they shouldn’t have “made it” in the real world.  

So in the end, give us original filmmaking or at least an honest look at romantic relationships.  Otherwise, just give us the same ‘ole boy love story we all want to vicariously live through.

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