Have seen a lot of very good foreign films recently (Sin Nombre, Broken Embraces, Mesrine....) but there has been a bit of a gap opening up for a good English language film that is just, well, entertaining.
The trailer for (500) Days of Summer looked promising and I heard it described as an anti- rom-com which suited me being quite a picky fan of that genre.
It isn't a love story we are told, well it is, but not in the conventional sense. Boy - Tom, meets girl - Summer, falls in love but right from the start you know that is doesn't work out. Tom is a romantic, Summer isn't. The story flips backwards and forwards between the start of the relationship and the end with quirky little treatments and touches.
Not only did it live up to expectation but can I just say that Joseph
Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Dechanel have joined the 'Stan List'. In fact
Gordon-Levitt makes me think of an American James McAvoy. What d'ya think?
Anyway, it is funny, amusing, quirky and although slightly predictable it just manages to keep on the right side of the sentimental-cringe line. I mean any film where the couple bond over a mutual love of a Smiths song has got to be good in my eyes.
I'll be adding it to my Sunday evening comfort movie DVD collection as soon as it is available.
Here's what some others thought of it:
Daily Telegraph: ...it’s surprisingly palatable, even sweet, if you can deal with the movie’s nervous habit of leap-frogging from one formal gimmick to the next.
Time Out: ...if it just misses being this generation’s ‘Annie Hall’, it’s still deliciously refreshing, sweet and fizzy. A sherbet dip of a movie.
Rolling Stone: ...the sublimely smart-sexy-joyful-sad (500) Days of Summer hits you like a blast of pure romantic oxygen.