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Summer Time

[500] Days of Summer from the posters looks like a nicely packaged and massed produced romantic comedy that we all have seen a million times. And to a certain extent it is. Its a simple enough premise - boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl and sometime in the course of the film some nuisance will plague their relationship and lead to moments where the two leads look out a window watching the rain whilst a sad but popular song plays in the background. But no, 500 Days of Summer is not quite like that. With a twist of reality and wit and charming character is hard not to fall in love with this film. Even from they're first interaction, the miscommunication and the awkwardness, its all too adorable. But as the reality goes this is not one that ends happily with the leads in each other's embrace.

This is a story of Tom Hanson (Joseph Gordon-Leviitt, the boy) a young, single man making greeting cards for a living, yes it could not get any more mundane even if they tried. While minding his business in the lift listening to The Smiths here he encounters the whimsical Summer Finn (Zooey Deschannel). Tom knew right there and then that he was in love with Summer. But Tom was the romantic at heart believing that he would never truly be happy without finding "the One" however Summer did not share the same sentiment. Despite the fact even from the beginning the future of this relationship was questionable the romance between them blossomed.

This all too adorable romantic comedy is just simply a delight to watch, between the great choice of music (including Regina Spektor, the Smiths and the Temper Trap), well written script and a dance sequence what’s not to love about 500 days of Summer.

As expected you feel for the character Tom, loving a person who simply doesn't love you back is painful but this isn't about a break-up but a look back at a relationship gone by with tainted eyes. And wondering what happened? Sometimes it was easier for Tom to ignore the problems of relationship rather than face them. But the winning element of this movie that I believe is that it's well written, there are no clichéd one liners and no really soppy dribble and yet it remains consistently funny throughout the film. Delivered by the perfectly casted leads, Gordon-Levitt whom seem to be in perpetual state of youth is perfect as the wide-eyed, slightly naive (but this is coming for a cynic) love-sick Tom. The human cup-cake and equally as adorable (some might say cute as button) Deshannel is perfect as the cynical, flowery and slightly mysterious Summer.

Another charming thing about this film which can occasionally make it difficult to follow is that it flips back and forth through the relationship, for example it jumps from the first day they meet to day 100 of their relationship. I enjoyed this format but may take awhile to get use to. Sometimes it really feels like you are taking a walk on a nice spring day when the sun is shinning and the skies are blue. The colourful scenes seem to really emphasis how Tom really saw the relationship and even to a certain extent really contradict the gloom of the situation.

In conclusion (as if this was a high school essay) I simply loved this movie it simple, sweet, cute and funnily romantic. As much as I loved this film it's clearly not everyone's cup of tea but that being said even my very male friend was pleasantly surprised and enjoyed it. If you haven't seen it I think you can catch it on DVD and apparently on Blu-ray (for those tech savvy hipsters, which I’m clearly not).

Side Note: Well that was my first entry, officially. Hope you enjoyed it and now rushing to get the DVD of 500 days of Summer. If there any problems or questions or criticism you are welcome to share. Since it was my first entry please be nice =D

images from Rotten Tomatoes & Wikipedia

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