Flickr/yeah0131
Director Marc Webb has hit indy gold. In his very first full-length movie after only a short string of music videos and other miscellaneous work, Webb’s “(500) Days of Summer” has brought in $12.3 million since its July 17 release date and hangs onto the #10 spot in the box office. Not bad for first-time writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, either. Not bad most especially for the trio considering that the movie is actually good.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as perpetual nice guy Tom Hansen, and Zooey Deschanel as plain jane/heartbreaker Summer Finn. The hour and 35 film follows the pair non-sequentially through 500 days of knowing each other– that’s one year, four months and 13 days if you’re counting, roughly. The couple is not together the entire time, but it takes hero Tom that long to realize how he really feels about love and destiny. And Summer.
But “(500) Days” is not just another cutesy movie about love and coincidence. Rather, Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are charming and witty, but mostly, they are real. As the two navigate through movie and diner dates, little sister soccer games and cubicle life, viewers can easily put themselves into the couple’s shoes. Clever writing and directing inserts a funny, Disney-like postcoital scene, making Gordon-Levitt’s character that much more likable, and later paints him on the screen as a sad comic book hero, hit hard by fate. Supporting characters Geoffrey Arend and Matthew Gray Gubler as Gordon-Levitt’s friends, and Chloe Moretz as his little sister, also bring wit and believable acting to the table, raising the movie yet another notch. The only crutch the filmmakers unnecessarily use from time to time is a voiceover, but it doesn’t detract enough to really bring the movie down.
28-year-old Gordon-Levitt rose to fame as Tommy Solomon on NBC’s late-90′s hit, “3rd Rock from the Sun,” and went on to be a beyond-lovable high schooler opposite Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles in 1999′s “10 Things I Hate About You.” But aside from a role as an Iraq vet in last summer’s box office bomb “Stop-Loss,” Gordon-Levitt had yet to prove himself as an adult actor in the mainstream– until now, that is. And even though it’s truly an independent film, “(500) Days” has made the box office crossover necessary to catapult him back into the mainstream. Deschanel, also 28, is another under-the-radar actress, starring in a series of supporting roles over the past 10 years. With the exception of a few parts opposite big names– like Will Ferrell in “Elf” (2003) and Jim Carrey in “Yes Man” (2008)– and a four-episode arc on “Weeds” a couple seasons back, Deschanel is just stepping out to leading lady status with “(500) Days.”
If may not be a summer blockbuster true to form, but “(500) Days” can do better than that. It’s a funny, honest movie that will leave you questioning your own choices in love and relationships, but in a good way. And for a movie to do that in just an hour and a half means the directing, writing and acting have all come together in perfect harmony. Not bad at all.
