500 Days of Summer

I saw a screening last night.  I'd read the script a few months ago and really enjoyed the script.  The script was more enjoyable than the movie, unfortunately.  Thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt did a great job, making a relatively bland character seem much more interesting and introspective than the words he was given to say.  Thought the gimmick ended up not really serving the film-- the movie would have been better, I think, if it was linear, and we didn't know five seconds into the film (basically) what was going to happen by the end.  The jumping back and forth in time made it hard to get to know the characters, and hard to feel like anyone was changing at all throughout the movie.  They don't change.  Nothing much happens.  There are some underwritten friend characters, and an underwritten boss, and a poorly-used narrator, and then there's just this guy and girl who exist in the movie, and he likes her although we're never sure why, and maybe she likes him too although we're never sure she does, and there's some scenes that play really real and some scenes that are trying way too hard to feel quirky or interesting for the sake of being quirky or interesting, and in the end I don't really know what the film is trying to say or if it's trying to say anything at all.  Love exists?  Love doesn't exist?  I don't know.  In the end it felt like a neat gimmick that led to a very ordinary movie.  And yet I really did enjoy the script when I read it, so I don't know what happened.

Comments

[Hi]

HI.
First, my english no good and kind of strange.

I really wanna see the movie. But This movie have not been released in my country. So...Actually, I find script of 'Days of summer' and just find your posting.
wow, Did you read the script? I envy you.
Don't you send me the mail to attached script word file please?
so thanks.

[Nina]

I just saw the movie and I think it's really good and totally makes sense:-)

Re: your questions :-)

1. Yes, they do insist that love exists.
2. Editing reflects the way we (well, at least I) tend to think about passed love:
when you are in love, you only see what you want to see. And we tend to go back and forth in between our happy memories, avoiding at any price reflecting on painful moments. That's the reason he goes back to the scene in the records store at least 5 times but found the courage to recall it entirely only in the end of the movie.
3. He does not need a reason to like her :-) - he likes her because he is in love! especially because these "luv" hit him for the first time. And she definitely likes him but she is not in love. She knows that he loves her, which annoys her but she knows that she can have him back at any time. She is much older than him - "emotionally" but he catches up by the end.
4. I believe there is a distinct character development - there is a huge difference between the guy, who is afraid to ask her out in the beginning and the guy, who is talking to Minka Kelly at the end (BTW, she looked so much better as in FNL.)
5. And yes, he is probably stereotypical - but aren't we all? I'm amazed that our love stories, which seem so unique and precious - are completely identical, in terms of emotions, development, pain and lessons. I definitely had MY day with "a bird" (that Disney/Bollywood thing was uber-hilarious) and a day with "tennis ball", etc, etc. You know - may be you are right and the script was even better but the movie is also very good.

P.S. I guess i also should have started with "my english no good" :-)

[Jina]

I agree with Nina. All of her points. I loved the movie but didn't read the script so maybe the script would have been better.

The movie felt REALLY real to me, and I identified with both the Tom and Summer character. Good point about Tom's progression to becoming more assertive at the end of the film. He develops a strength and sense of himself that he doesn't have at the beginning. It is about "love" but not about love between the two, as much as about the path everyone takes on finding love...