Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel

Director: Marc Webb

Screenplay: Scott Neustadter, Michael Weber

Running time: 1 hr 35 mins

Genre: Romance/Comedy



CRITIQUE:


The genre of contemporary romantic comedy usually comes with labels that could easily put-off pundits. Films of this category flogged by mainstayers such as Kate Hudson, Katherine Heigl or the now-resurrected Sandra Bullock easily have the effect of curdled milk on the face of anyone with an inch of a brain. The formula and plot are typically very linear and as predictable as a Richard Curtis screenplay, where everyone hails for a taxi and quickly dashes to the airport to save a romantic possibility at the last minute. All of that obligatory formula is dispensed with in (500) Days of Summer, a refreshing, zesty burst of fresh air in the stale, rotten stinkers of your average rom-coms. The “boy-meets-girl” is still present, but it invents its own daring and creative narrative, jumbling the plot chronology into a Memento-like time-play, where the boy Tom (a groovy, pleasing Joseph Gordon-Levitt) recollects his 500-day relationship with the eponymous Summer (Zooey Deschanel in quirky yet painfully brusque mode). Non-linear narrative might appear as a gimmick, but it’s arguably far from one: it strays from the clear-cut conventions of its genre, and whence we see each joyous sequence juxtaposed with its counteracting melancholic bite of a lost relationship, we discover this film has a point – it balances every single high state with an opposing low. And the concept of a protagonist looking back to the good moments, as well as understanding how it all failed, seems plausible.


It also has a disarmingly honest worldview about relationships that could be worthy of a Woody Allen. Tom’s belief of a true romance is sharply contrasted by Summer’s beguiling and baffling casualness, whose persistence of a ‘friendship’ status is always a blow to the male pride. It’s refreshing to see a woman behaving this way. And Deschanel perfectly channels this impression of ethereal quality, something so grounded yet so unattainable, her gaze often has this spacey look that’s both charming and perceptive, as though she’s always studying everyone around her.


Eschewing formula and sentimentality aside, it doesn’t root for the mawkish types. This is supposed to be a feel-bad film, but strangely enough, it wraps itself up with such warmth and heart-tugging tenderness that made indie-winners Little Miss Sunshine and Once excel. Watch that bravura split-screen sequence at a roof party, where expectations versus reality occur, it manages to brilliantly oppose a romantic trajectory with a cynical pang of real-life credibility.


VERDICT:

A genuine surprise. This is a smart revival of the romcom genre that is otherwise brain-dead on arrival. It harks back to the wry wit of Annie Hall, told in a non-linear, memory-rummaging style of Memento. The result is a painful/wonderful, self-conscious look at contemporary relationships that has more truth and brains and sensibilities that defy the genre's dull conventions. That split-screen finale alone is an accomplishment.



RATING: A-