What Do The Critics Say
"It's a cleverly structured film, like an illicit flick through someone's diary, jumping back and forth through the 500 days. A dry voiceover signposts the bitter end from the very beginning, with a warning: 'This is not a love story.' Gordon-Levitt emerges as the real star though building on that rare Everyman quality previously showcased in high-school noir Brick and small-town drama Mysterious Skin. It may be a pat conclusion, but a few flaws are easily forgiven when there's so much else to love. 4 STARS."
Stella Papamichael DIGITAL SPY
"An energetic, enjoyable affair with plenty to say about unrequited love."
David Edwards UK DAILY MIRROR
"A charming, funny and wonderfully inventive romcom that's easily one of the best films of the year."
Matthew Turner VIEW LONDON
"It's all about the architecture of love."
Staci Layne Wilson BUZZINE MAGAZINE
"A modern romance for grown-ups... a sweet-natured, funny, deeply-romantic tale that brims with energy and is blessed with top-notch performances."
Mark Adams UK SUNDAY MIRROR
"Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber’s sparky, ingeniously structured screenplay is given maximum pizzazz by pop promo director Webb. Perfectly played, simultaneously serious and light, endlessly inventive, this is a strong contender for the most original date movie of the year. (Terrific) stuff. 4 stars."
Empire Magazine
"This is not a love story", we're told. Oh yes it is. But it's a love story for people who hate love stories: who hate romcoms. From start to end his subtle movie feather-teases your funny spots: it amazes, refreshes and it delights. 5/5."
Victor Olliver TELETEXT
"I loved (500) Days of Summer for many reasons, but for this one the most: I felt more during this movie than I have in any other romantic comedy in years. Director Marc Webb (working from a smart script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber) finds visually innovative ways to tell the story. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are both superb in their roles, and in its mixture of emotion and quirk, the movie has a nice Garden State-y feel to it. In terms of story, the movie is bittersweet, but as a moviegoing experience, it's pure ecstasy. 4/4."
Mike McGranaghan THE AISLE SEAT
"Sparklingly funny, beautifully heartfelt, wonderfully uplifting and brilliantly performed. In short, it's the best romantic film since: well, what exactly?"
Robbie Collin NEWS OF THE WORLD
"Not just the best film of the season, it's one of the best of the year."
Richard Knight WINDY CITY TIMES
"Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt share an easy chemistry, making each phase of their relationship believable, while Weber’s background in commercials actually suits the jumpy nature of the narrative. And for a film about the death of a relationship, it manages to end on a surprisingly warm note. Heartbreak is rarely enjoyable, but in this case, it's very easy company: as are Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. 4 STARS."
Rod Yates EMPIRE MAGAZINE
"Charm effuses from this quirky love story in which fate, coincidence, dreams, expectations and reality are chaotically intertwined. Boy meets girl, but it's not a love story, we are told. To be accurate, it's a story that questions the notion of romantic love, when you meet someone under destiny's gaze and the stars are aligned. Former child-star Gordon-Levitt is terrific. Deschanel counters nicely as the wide-eyed, effervescent girl."
Louise Keller URBAN CINEFILE
The Directors Story
Before I read "500 Days Of Summer", I’d completely lost interest in the romantic comedy genre. Somewhere between puberty and when I started paying taxes, I stopped believing in the world these rosy cheeked girls in cute winter knit caps kept promising me. What did it have to do with me? When I sat down to read the Xeroxed pages that had already been dog-eared from about three weeks of neglect in my backpack I wasn’t really looking forward to it. It was the title that finally got me. Needless to say, something clicked. The writers, Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber: without descending into some oddball high concept; conjured up a relationship that felt both artful and truthful. Metaphorical and literal. We all know Summer because Summer isn’t just a girl. She’s an event. I met my first Summer when I was seventeen. She got me to skip class so she could read me "Catcher in the Rye" at the Vilas Park Zoo back in Madison, Wisconsin. (How cool is that?) At the time, I believed that love was the magic pill that would connect my soul to the universe and provide unending, effortless bliss. I won’t go into the sordid details but suffice it to say pretty girls with rebel hearts are in high demand. Some people end up with their Summer. I did not. We broke up and I entered into this weird limbo. I couldn’t shake that feeling that something had gone horribly, painfully wrong with the universe. The reality I expected and the reality I experienced were suddenly very different. The ironic thing is: the one thing that made me feel alone is probably the very thing that so many people from different walks of life can connect to: we all know heartbreak. Whether we’re seventeen or seventy. In many ways, making this movie: my first feature film; has been the happy ending that I didn’t have with Summer. It’s got a whiff of the uncynical kid from the Vilas Park Zoo in it. Because under the humor and the whimsy of "500 Days Of Summer", there’s a fundamental truth at play: yes, love can be cruel, harsh and difficult but it’s also, by far, the best thing life has to offer.
Screenwrite Neustadter's Story
On July 22nd 2001, a Sunday if I’m not mistaken (and I’m not), sometime between the hours of seven and nine (Eastern Standard Time), a monumental, cataclysmic, earth-shattering event took place at a restaurant called "Serendipity" in New York: I got dumped; hard. We’d only been dating a couple months and yet, as often happens in the wake of such things, I was flooded by some powerful emotions: hopelessness, crippling inadequacy, the world ending, that sort of thing. Now at this time, my friend Michael H Weber and I had written one screenplay together, an outlandish and rather inane comedy solely designed to make us both laugh. A few people read it and thought it was funny but nothing ever happened and that was that. But then, after a few aborted attempts to write something big and commercial, my frustration level, coupled with my already gloomy mental state, convinced me that I needed to do something nuts. So I did. I impulsively quit my job of four years, said goodbye to my friends and family, and flew off to London for an indefinite period of time (to 'study', as I told all those concerned). An amazing thing happened next. Almost instantly upon my arrival, I met someone new. She was smart. She was pretty. She was perfect. Six months later, she dumped me. "500 Days Of Summer" is the story of those relationships. Or, at least, how I remembered them afterwards. (Ok, fine: how I chose to remember them.) Weber and I always dreamed of writing a romantic comedy like our heroes Cameron Crowe and Woody Allen: one that was relatable and identifiable, where the comedy came from a real place rather than some squirrel attack in the woods. Our aim was simple: tell the story of a relationship, make it real, make it funny, try to make it not suck. This is the result. An anatomy of a romance. Equal parts autobiography and fantasy. A pop song in movie form. '500 Days' is a lot of things: funny (hopefully), sad (definitely), peculiar (for sure). Today, looking back on the experience, I can indeed find something wholly ironic: that an idea born from the pain of two bad relationships has directly led to some of the best in my life, with a great director, amazing producers, and practically everyone else involved in the project.
The Inside Story
"500 Days Of Summer" began in angst. It was sparked by two young screenwriters: one single and recovering from a badly bruised heart, the other in a long-term relationship; reminiscing over romances that could have been, that maybe should have been, but somehow just, weren’t. Almost everyone has had one and, in an age when everything seems to happen faster and more intensely, they seem to be ever more common. So how, wondered Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, does a young romantic survive such a reality? And how could today’s version of romantic idealism be portrayed on the screen in a way it’s never really been seen before? "There are certain topics that romantic comedies always hint around and never really tackle directly," says Neustadter. "Questions such as: is there really such a thing as 'the one?' And, if there is, what happens if you lose her? What do you do now? Can you still believe in love? Do your beliefs about love change? These were the questions Weber and I wanted to write about even though we don’t quite have the answers." Thus was born the character of Tom Hansen, a guy who believes madly, passionately, even unreasonably in the mystery and power of love, and the woman who doesn’t. Tom’s romantic muse, total obsession and the frustratingly non-committal, destiny-denying bane of his existence is: Summer. But it wasn’t just Tom Hansen that the screenwriters were interested in: it was the inner workings of his memory, as he looks back on just what really happened between him and Summer. "The idea we had for the screenplay was sort of a romantic comedy meets "Memento". We wanted to follow a guy sifting through the memories of a relationship, moving backwards and forwards through time as he starts to see things he might not have seen while he was going through it," Neustadter explained. "Writing this movie became an incredibly creative experience, because we gave ourselves so much freedom and we were constantly exploring how people’s emotions and relationships are tied up in the culture all around us: in the songs, movies, books, television and art by which we define our identities," Weber notes. Neustadter and Weber also freely played with time, moving ahead and then back-pedaling through Tom and Summer's relationship at will. "Jumbling the chronology of the movie was a lot of fun for us," Weber says, "but there was also a method to our madness." "This is a story that doesn’t fit directly into any genre or label," says producer Mason Novick ("Red Eye" & "Juno"). "It’s not your typical romantic comedy and it’s not your typical drama: it’s an intriguing, funny, fresh perspective on what modern relationships are really like. And it attracted just the right group of people to pull it all together." "The two writers, Scott and Michael, are basically two Toms," says producer Jessica Tuchinsky ("Mean Girls"). "It uses a multitude of storytelling devices, and it’s very complex in how it flashes backwards and forwards and uses these total fantasy moments and pulls all these different pieces together into a puzzle," notes producer Steven J Wolfe ("When Do We Eat?"). "We knew it would need a director who could plan everything right down to the most minute detail." Their search led them to Marc Webb. "When I first read the script, it was like Tom seeing Summer for the first time. Something clicked and I just knew this was the one," Webb recalls. "Marc is that rare director who doesn’t sacrifice substance for style," says 2008 Independent Spirit Award winner Novik.
Since all the other characters are ultimately viewed through Tom’s subjective experience, casting Tom was central to the film’s entire foundation. Director Marc Webb enthusiastically chose Joseph Gordon-Levitt, the young but already remarkably diverse actor who has distinguished himself over the last few years as uncategorizable and fascinating to watch in such films as: "Brick", "The Lookout" and "Stop-loss". "Joe is so very intelligent and he understood every line of this story and of Tom’s entire emotional arc," states Webb. "At the same time, he was very inquisitive, asking a lot of great questions. It’s easy to forget that Joe started his career on a sit-com, but he also has a very solid basis in the craft of comedy that he brings to Tom. He has an almost scientific approach to playing the straight man: he finds ways to be very funny while still bringing genuine emotion to every scene." Two time Young Star Award winner Gordon-Levitt (1997 & '08 "3rd Rock from the Sun") loved the idea of telling a love story from the rarely cracked male interior point of view. "I liked that the story was written by two guys and is directed by a guy and they were all completely unapologetic about the idea that this story is from our perspective. It doesn’t pretend to be an objective point of view. The entire story is completely subjective from Tom’s internal experience and it illuminates his experience of love. Love isn’t rational or logical or linear, and the film completely reflects that. It’s a heartfelt cinematic experience that’s hilarious but doesn’t pander. It manages to be an authentic story about love without taking itself too seriously." Another joy for Gordon-Levitt was reuniting with Zooey Deschanel. The two had previously worked together in 2001's "Manic", playing teenagers Lyle and Tracy. "It was great to do something so completely different with her and to have fun every day," he said. "Zooey is just the perfect alt-ingénue," Webb says. "She is Summer in so many ways. She’s funny, she’s real, she’s very smart, she’s got the most beautiful eyes you’ve ever seen and she’s got a great sort of mercurial energy that makes her constantly compelling to watch." 2003 Mar del Plata Film Festival Best Actress winner Deschanel, was drawn to the challenge of playing the ideal inside a young romantic’s mind. "Summer is such an interesting character, because she’s really seen entirely from Tom’s perspective as this ideal woman, when she’s actually just a smart, interesting girl with her own problems. I was so excited when I read the script because it’s so rare to see a romantic comedy that’s really fresh and different. It felt like a new way of telling a story we think we’ve seen before." Working with Gordon-Levitt was also a draw. "Joe and I have known each other for many years and I feel completely comfortable with him," Deschanel ("All the Real Girls", "Bridge to Terabithia" & "Yes Man") says. "I think he’s the perfect Tom because he’s sweet and adorable but he manages to communicate a kind of naiveté within all his charm." Tom's two best friend: his doctor friend Paul and co-worker McKenzie; struggle to uncloud Tom’s vision right from the get go. They are played by Matthew Gray Gubler, a young filmmaker and actor seen on "Criminal Minds" and, Geoffrey Arend who has had memorable roles in such comedy hits as "Garden State" with Zach Braff & "Super Troopers" with Kevin Heffernan. "I see Paul and McKenzie as the kind of Good Angel and Bad Angel who are helping Tom to figure out what he’s doing," says Gubler.
The Verdict
"Unfortunately "(500) Days Of Summer" is not for everyone. It will sit exceptionally well with the 'art-house' set and many of those cinemagoers who frequent the mutliplexes. But I hasten to point that this is another one of those films that you will either totally love or equaly despise. There are no gray areas when it comes to how this film will affect those who see it. That's because "(500) Days Of Summer" isn't a romantic comedy in the 'normal' sense. This isn't a film about finding that special woman you believe is 'the one' and then having everything running smoothly to a fairy tale finish. Remember Bizarro in D.C. Comics? In many ways that is what this film asks us to reflect upon: the opposite side of love, where one person, totally smitten and blinded by love, doesn't get the full picture. It's about how hard the fall back to earth can be when the terrible realization hits you right between the eyeballs: 'miss wonderful' isn't a soul-mate, she's your best-friend. "(500) Days Of Summer" works well thanks to its two inimitable stars: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. There's no doubting they are perfect for the roles of Tom Hansen and Summer Finn. "(500) Days Of Summer" is a wickedly witty, lopsided and quirky romantic comedy. Well worth having a look at! 4 STARS."
Synopsis
 This is a story of boy meets girl. A story about a boys joy at finally finding the ideal girl and falling in love. Tom, the boy, still believes, even in this cynical modern world, in the notion of a transforming, cosmically destined, lightning strikes once kind of love. Summer, the girl, doesn’t. Not at all. But that doesn’t stop Tom from going after her, again and again, like a modern Don Quixote, with all his might and courage. Suddenly, Tom is in love not just with a lovely, witty, intelligent woman (not that he minds any of that), but with the very idea of Summer, the very idea of a love that still has the power to shock the heart and stop the world. The fuse is lit on Day 1, when Tom, a would-be architect turned sappy greeting card writer encounters Summer, his boss’s breezy, beautiful new secretary, fresh off the plane from Michigan. Though seemingly out of his league, Tom soon discovers he shares plenty in common with Summer. By Day 32, Tom is irreparably smitten, living in a giddy world of Summer on his mind.
Who Plays Who?
Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Zooey Deschanel
Geoffrey Arend
Chloe Moretz
Matthew Gray Gubler
Clark Gregg
Patricia Belcher
Rachel Boston
Minka Kelly
Ian Reed Kesler
Maile Flanagan
Jennifer Hetrick
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Tom
Summer
McKenzie
Rachel Hansen
Paul
Vance
Millie
Alison
Autumn
Douche
Rhoda
Sarah
The Production Team
Director
Written by
Producers
Original Music
Cinematography
Film Editor
Casting
Production Designer
Art Direction
Set Decoration
Costume Design
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Marc Webb
Scott Neustadter & Michael H Weber
Mason Novick/Jessica Tuchinsky/Mark Waters/Steven J Wolfe
Mychael Danna & Rob Simonsen
Eric Steelberg
Alan Edward Bell
Eyde Belasco
Laura Fox
Charles Varga
Jennifer Lukehart
Hope Hanafin
Run Time 95 minutes
Rated M [AUST]
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