500 Days of Summer

500 Days of Summer was a story about a boy who met a girl. But you should know upfront that it wasn't a love story. It was an independent comedy-drama film starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Also part of the cast were Chloe Grace Moretz, Clark Gregg, Geofrrey Arend, Matthew Gray Gubler, Ian Reed Kesler, Rachel Boston and Minka Kelly. It was narrated by Richard McGonagle. It was directed by Marc Webb and was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. Fox Searchlight distributed the movie. The film became a huge hit critically and commercially, being nominated for different awards and receiving widespread recognition.

As avid readers would know, I like movies narrated using a nonlinear narrative structure. In my opinion, it's smart, although it might be tricky pulling off this kind of film style. 500 Days of Summer didn't have any problem pulling it off. Actually, employing this strategy escalated the cinematography of the movie. It's not a typical story to begin with so it was a really good move to use an unconventional way of relaying the story. Also, they picked a great person to be its narrator. I thought Richard McGonagle was a very good choice indeed.

It's a little cheesy at times but it was the kind of cheese I appreciated. It was funny even when it's dramatic, if that made any sense. I remember watching it the first time when it was released when a friend of mine invited me to go see it with her. I didn't want to go at first, but decided to come along anyway. It just wasn't my kind of film. But I still found it amusing and found myself enjoying it. A rainy afternoon brought the idea of watching the movie again, just to remind me what was it about that made it amusing, aside from Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. I think it's the simplicity of it all, and the authenticity that went along with it. Every single event in the movie pertained to everyday, normal occurrences. From the situation in work, to one's relationship, to one's friends, to one's willingness/unwillingness to cope. These were average things we have all witnessed. The only thing different was how the movie collated it into one hilariously depressing movie.

My favorite scene was probably the one where the movie compared the expectations of Tom against the reality. It perfectly showed how we always wish things to go right, for fate to be in favor of us. Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. It was a very, very smart thing and it made the audience, for sure, connect to the movie even more. It was also smart to play the two scenes side by side, and make a juxtaposition of the two.

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were just phenomenal in this movie. They had the perfect chemistry to pull off this kind of story. They do "dramedy" really good. And it helps that Zooey Deschanel is very irresistible with her charms. Chole Grace Moretz was the other star of the move. As a young kid, she already showed her capabilities as an actress. This girl has a bright future in the industry because she actually has what it takes to make it big, much bigger than she is now. I look forward to seeing a lot more of her. I was also surprised to realize that Clark Gregg was in this movie. I only really noticed him in the Marvel movies as Agent Coulson (one of my favorite characters, especially in The Avengers) so I was surprised to see him in another kind of movie.

This movie had one of the best soundtracks, I thought. It had a great list of songs, and it was diverse and offered a wide range of variety. I even searched for the list of songs and tried to listen to every single song again. I think it helped that Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are both musically inclined that they were able to contribute to the film's soundtrack. My favorite among the songs was Sweet Disposition by The Temper Trap. That was really good. I also enjoyed She's Got You High by Mumm-ra a lot.

I thought the movie remained smart from start to end. It developed its characters rather well and maintained the flow of the story even if it wasn't told in a chronological order. The story in itself was exceptional and the telling of the story was even better. The movie was really good. Although I;'m not the most romantic person,. or the best person to watch romantic films with, I could still say that I liked the movie, and I was completely amused by it.

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