by Chris Feil
Ten years removed, looking back at (500) Days of Summer is not unlike looking back at an old relationship. It’s a movie about earned perspective that in turn some of us look at much differently than when the film first wooed audiences. It’s like a strange artifact from a bygone time. Remember when we thought Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel would be huge? Remember when its love story was more widely considered a coming of age story instead of a “dude, grow up!” movie.
The film itself captures a nostalgia for something than never existed, embodying the kind of young male mindset that wants to will a great love into existence without having to see the real person. But the element that works best to reveal a film that has that perspective in mind, one of the things that also made (500) Days of Summer a movie Of The Moment, is its catchy soundtrack. Remember Feist?
The film reaches for the feeling of falling in love with its most memorable sequence, a sudden all-out old-fashioned musical number set to Hall and Oates “You Make My Dreams”. And sure, the first throws of love can feel just like this - and its gutsy, ironic showmanship still feels like an antidote to modern movie musicals that apologize for being musicals. But it’s a sequence purely inside the head of Levitt’s Tom, with the warning signs already there that he’s only falling for his version of Deschanel’s Summer.
Perhaps the scene only works to reveal Tom’s poor perspective to the more cynical viewer, one cautious to put themselves in his shoes and get lost in the serotonin of the moment. Or maybe it’s just that the film wants to pull the rug from under us and make us feel guilty later for enjoying the fantasy. It could be more ultimately effective were the film less eager to let Tom off the hook for his self-absorption.
The film, or at least the romance, is bookended by Regina Spektor tracks. The film’s opening credits are set to her wondrous “Us”, a kind of fantasy fairytale song but for the more jaded hipster set. Childhood videos of a boy and girl play opposite eachother throughout, turning the song into a lullaby of sorts for the kind of romance we’re always promised. The ideal love story that says nothing about earning love, or truly appreciating a person for who they are and not what they provide you. It pulls you in with as much easy sway as the flashier dance sequence.
And then Spektor returns as Tom finally sees the relationship for what it was. “Hero” provides a montage of moments we have already seen between Tom and Summer, now with a Real Girl and with moving parts and more nuanced emotions. The hero was actually kind of a jerk, one who painted his reality to suit what he wanted to see. It’s a much more somber tone than what Spektor had promised to begin with, lending a weight to Tom’s realization: he sucks.
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