(500) Days of Summer

So there are a lot of mixed opinions out there about this one. For those of you who haven't seen it, or who saw it so long ago that you'd like a refresher, it's like this: boy (Tom, aka Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets girl (Summer, aka Zooey Deschanel), falls for girl, but the relationship doesn't last. Some people have problems with Zooey Deschanel (which I just don't get because I've thought she was lovely since Almost Famous and how could you not like the sweet tones of She & Him? but that's slightly off topic, although not too off topic because I do have some things to say about the soundtrack), or with her character Summer, which is a little two-dimensional.

But let me say this about that: every aspect of a film has to serve a purpose. Even if you read it as negative, it's there for a reason - or the movie is absolute crap that no one should have to pay money for. With that in mind, to me, Summer is two-dimensional because we see her as Tom sees her, and the movie makes it clear that things don't work out between them because he never fully understood her, or who she was to him (or who he was to her? now I'm confusing myself). The movie is about the subjectivity of romance: for myriad reasons, one person can read interactions very differently than the other, and this will inevitably lead to misunderstandings and miscommunications. This unfolds throughout the film as Tom revisits moments that were important to him - how he reads her behavior changes each time, depending on his mood or his understanding of them as a couple.

I have a soft spot for aesthetically pleasing films, and this one is no exception: the costuming, set and lighting created a timeless quality to the film, allowing the relationship to breathe in a world just slightly different from our own - a world where everyone seems to share a cohesive design aesthetic and color palette. Summer's outfits are all whimsical, vintage-y ensembles; I know a whole lot less about menswear, but Tom seems dressed to match.

And I can not get over the headphones. These headphones, to be exact:

By WeAretheSuperlativeConspiracy. A hipster staple, but I tend to gravitate towards that look myself. Is it so wrong to fall in love with a man for his headphones? Which brings me to another aspect of the film that I love: music. There are some days when I truly believe that a film is only as good as its OST. 500 Days does not disappoint, featuring tracks from Regina Spektor, Feist, the Temper Trap, Wolfmother, and I could go on. The best part, however, is how the music is intertwined with the story itself: not only does Gordon-Levitt sport the magic headphones on and off throughout the film, in the scene pictured above, they connect for the first time over the track from the Smiths that he's listening to ("There Is A Light That Never Goes Out"). And if I'm being honest, I am almost as big a music nerd as I am a movie nerd, so sparks always fly when the two are combined.

I guess in the end the reason why I like this movie is because for all its magical realism, it's far more realistic in terms of relation and perception than your average run-of-the-mill Hollywood rom-com. Sometimes things don't work out, and that's still beautiful and authentic and life-affirming.

And finally, just because I've been listening to it on repeat while writing this, from the soundtrack of (500) Days of Summer I give you Carla Bruni and her guitar: