(500) Days of Summer (Marc Webb, 2009)

One of the characteristics that I most appreciated about Marc Webb’s debut feature (500) Days of Summer was its adherence to depicting a relationship unto itself in all its highs and lows, from courtship to break-up and maybe back again. There’s no infidelity that leads to a huge blow-up, no manufactured drama to push the plot forward. One day Tom Hanson (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) are together and the next they’re not. And it’s largely left up to the characters and the audience – through indicators, sure – to decide why. The film is told in an out-of-order presentation, as we flip back and forth through their connection (Summer refuses to label it a relationship) with the help of some unfortunately mood-indicating title cards. And what should be shocking for a romantic comedy these days, it gets a lot of the moments right without relying on a high concept (see: The Proposal) to throw these characters together. There’s a wonderful segment chronicling the high, on-top-of-the-world feelings a relationship can instill in you, amplified to comic effect, but even that is crammed alongside a mood of sick desperation after a breakup and a depression where you can’t even get the resolve to roll out of bed… and sometimes don’t. Then there are the cute moments of flirtation… and the “what the hell happened?” instances where you’re buying Jack Daniels and Twinkies in your bathrobe and no one at work has seen you for a week. The film might be a little too cutesy and plotted for its own good, with Tom overly reliant on his apparently know-it-all, been-there-before kid sister and the 500 days set-up in itself, but there’s a surprising amount of depth here and it’s a real rarity to see the encapsulation of a romance done so well. The film is emotionally impactful and heartfelt and before you know it, it’s Autumn.