By Christopher Dow
‘This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know upfront this is not a love story.’ We never remember in chronological order, we remember the good, the bad, the best, the worst and that’s why we can never tell a story from the beginning. It always starts at a penultimate stage. In this case we start on day 488 of the 500 days hopeless romantic Tom, (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) falls for cynical romantic Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel).
Tom, a failed architect, now a greetings card writer, immediately falls for the sickly sweetness of Summer when she becomes his boss’ new assistant. He believes he can never be truly happy until he meets ‘the one’, this stems from spending his childhood days listening to sad Britpop. Fortunately for him, on day 4 of knowing Summer, he learns she shares the same passion and the two of them bond over a love for The Smiths. She ironically sings to him, ‘To die by your side is such a heavenly way to die’ in this iconic elevator scene where the two have their first interaction.
We learn the relationship is doomed from the outset, as Tom creates a chaotic narrative in order to illustrate his pain. He believes in love, unlike Summer who only ever loved two things ‘her long dark hair and how easily she could cut if off and feel nothing’. On day 290 we learn that Tom is in fact her long hair, when the relationship abruptly comes to an end. She likens them both to rock n roll couple Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, Summer possesses the character of Sid, stabbing Nancy (Tom) by cutting him from her life, just like she could with her hair. Yet again we see Summer left feeling nothing, while Tom is left heart-broken smashing plates and shotting vodka.
This tragicomedy is clever cinematography, as it leads you to believe that it is going to be a happy ending for Tom and Summer. The believable split screen scene of Tom’s ‘expectations’ versus his miserable ‘reality’ is something that we can all relate to. Similarly to the title of the film ‘500 days of summer’ we all have this expectation of another sickening magical romance. However, it’s refreshing to know the reality is relatable and love doesn’t always go to plan.
Rating: ****
Chris Dow Journalist 