(500) Days of Summer

A second opinion from Movie Man Mike

(500) Days of Summer (B). This movie gives you a pretty good picture of the highs and lows of relationships. After watching it, I had to see if it was written by a male, and yes, it was (Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber). The movie definitely presents the point of view of Tom Hansen, a young 20-something guy who gave up his dream of being an architect and went to work for a greeting card company. There, he met Summer Finn and fell head-over-heels for her. The story is full of charm and wit. Joseph Gordon-Levitt has great comic timing as Tom Hansen and Zooey Deschanel plays an intriguing and mysterious Summer Finn. It's this mysterious part that caused me to wonder if the film was written by a male. We never really see what it is that motivated Summer Finn and her actions seem almost too mysterious, as if the writers didn't quite understand her themselves and didn't know how to write her character. I have no doubt that some of the mystery is intentional on the writers' part because there's a convenient story overlay to explain it, but I also wonder if they based the character on someone they met and couldn't ever figure out. In any event, it's an entertaining film and worth the price of admission. If you've had a recent breakup, I am not sure this is the film for you, but then again, it might be just the ticket to help you move on.