(500) Days of Summer
What?
Tom is a successful guy, he may not be in his dream job - an architect - but he is doing well writing the blurbs for greeting cards none the less. One day a pretty young woman -Summer starts working at the greeting card firm Tom works for, her arrival hits him like a thunderbolt. He is instantly smitten, but as the relationship grows it becomes apparent that Summer, though fond of Tom, does not feel quite the same way and over the course of their 500 days together, Tom finds eventually finds out why.
The plot, as you will have gathered, is pretty simple. It's almost as simple as the old tag line summary - boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl…Director Marc Webb tries to keeps things interesting by bouncing the story backwards and forwards in time, so one minute we are on day 40, and everything is hunky dory, and then we flash forward to day 270 and Tom is suicidal, and then Webb whizzes us back again. The effect is that the relationship, and its disintegration, is drip fed to us out of order, requiring the audience to join the dots. This plot device works well enough to begin with, but ultimately can't disguise the fact that what we have is a wafer thin plot, and in all honesty, pretty forgettable story. Another problem is that we are supposed to believe that Summer could elicit the kind of head over heels - dumb struck by love - reaction in Tom. Now lovely as Zooey Deschanel is, I for one just did not buy it - it is believable that he would fall for her, just not in the manner in which he does. Deschanel is fine as the titular Summer, I always enjoy her performances, she has an easy charm and a likable screen presence, but she may want to consider different role types in the future to avoid being typecast as the quirky girl next door type. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good as the slightly neurotic Tom, and it was refreshing to see the two leads playing characters their own age - with jobs, and homes and grown up worries - rather than putting them in college or school. Webb keeps things light and breezy, with a cool quirky feel to proceedings, including the obligatory off beat sound track and retro styling's, but if you were to take out the quirk - I'm thinking dance routine in the park here - and tell the story in a linear format, it would become painfully apparent just how little meat there is on the bone.
Optics:
The image is fine, it is adequate, it is free from artefacts, detail and clarity is spot on, it is in short what you would expect from a new release. The problem is that there is little else you can say about it, if the image were to be described as a colour it would be beige - pleasant, inoffensive, but ultimately a bit boring. The colour palette does little to help here, as it is mainly pastel with little vibrancy in the colours, with the exception of the park scene. So, nothing is wrong with the print, it just doesn't jump out of the screen like the best Blu transfers do.
Sonics:
The mix, like the image, is fine, without ever being anything more than average. As with most romantic comedies, it utilises the front sound stage in the main, with the surrounds being used for ambience - the sub doesn't really factor. That said the eclectic soundtrack, including a couple of numbers from Deschanel, is cool and fills the room, and dialogue is crisp and clear and locked to centre.
Extras:
The routine deleted scenes and brief Entertainment Channel style interviews with the stars are supplemented by a couple of odd ball curios. The one that works best is essentially a video directed by Webb for a Zooey Deschanel song, which is great fun, the less said about the Sid and Nancy skit, the better.
Well?
The movie will pass an evening and works well enough as a date movie, but despite a concerted effort by Webb to make things quirky and interesting 500 days of Summer is unlikely to linger long in the memory, rental recommendation only.
Kris Williams
Tom is a successful guy, he may not be in his dream job - an architect - but he is doing well writing the blurbs for greeting cards none the less. One day a pretty young woman -Summer starts working at the greeting card firm Tom works for, her arrival hits him like a thunderbolt. He is instantly smitten, but as the relationship grows it becomes apparent that Summer, though fond of Tom, does not feel quite the same way and over the course of their 500 days together, Tom finds eventually finds out why.
The plot, as you will have gathered, is pretty simple. It's almost as simple as the old tag line summary - boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl…Director Marc Webb tries to keeps things interesting by bouncing the story backwards and forwards in time, so one minute we are on day 40, and everything is hunky dory, and then we flash forward to day 270 and Tom is suicidal, and then Webb whizzes us back again. The effect is that the relationship, and its disintegration, is drip fed to us out of order, requiring the audience to join the dots. This plot device works well enough to begin with, but ultimately can't disguise the fact that what we have is a wafer thin plot, and in all honesty, pretty forgettable story. Another problem is that we are supposed to believe that Summer could elicit the kind of head over heels - dumb struck by love - reaction in Tom. Now lovely as Zooey Deschanel is, I for one just did not buy it - it is believable that he would fall for her, just not in the manner in which he does. Deschanel is fine as the titular Summer, I always enjoy her performances, she has an easy charm and a likable screen presence, but she may want to consider different role types in the future to avoid being typecast as the quirky girl next door type. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is good as the slightly neurotic Tom, and it was refreshing to see the two leads playing characters their own age - with jobs, and homes and grown up worries - rather than putting them in college or school. Webb keeps things light and breezy, with a cool quirky feel to proceedings, including the obligatory off beat sound track and retro styling's, but if you were to take out the quirk - I'm thinking dance routine in the park here - and tell the story in a linear format, it would become painfully apparent just how little meat there is on the bone.
Optics:
The image is fine, it is adequate, it is free from artefacts, detail and clarity is spot on, it is in short what you would expect from a new release. The problem is that there is little else you can say about it, if the image were to be described as a colour it would be beige - pleasant, inoffensive, but ultimately a bit boring. The colour palette does little to help here, as it is mainly pastel with little vibrancy in the colours, with the exception of the park scene. So, nothing is wrong with the print, it just doesn't jump out of the screen like the best Blu transfers do.
Sonics:
The mix, like the image, is fine, without ever being anything more than average. As with most romantic comedies, it utilises the front sound stage in the main, with the surrounds being used for ambience - the sub doesn't really factor. That said the eclectic soundtrack, including a couple of numbers from Deschanel, is cool and fills the room, and dialogue is crisp and clear and locked to centre.
Extras:
The routine deleted scenes and brief Entertainment Channel style interviews with the stars are supplemented by a couple of odd ball curios. The one that works best is essentially a video directed by Webb for a Zooey Deschanel song, which is great fun, the less said about the Sid and Nancy skit, the better.
Well?
The movie will pass an evening and works well enough as a date movie, but despite a concerted effort by Webb to make things quirky and interesting 500 days of Summer is unlikely to linger long in the memory, rental recommendation only.
Kris Williams
Director:
Marc Webb
Starring:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Zooey Deschanel
Best line:
Tagline:
"Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl doesn’t."
Description:
Fox
UK
Region free
Rated 15
Hr 35 Mins
2.40:1
MPEG-4/AVC
DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio
English
Subtitles: Eng, Dan, Fin, Nor, Swe
'Lost Days of Summer'
'Bank Dance'
'Mean’s Cinemash – Sid and Nancy'
Music video
Conversations with Zooey and Joseph
Ratings: (Out of 10)
Film 6.0
Optics 8.0
Sonics 7.0
Extras 5.0
Overall 7.0
