LAFF 2009: (500) DAYS OF SUMMER

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel create some heat in (500 Days of Summer).


A stylish witty romantic romp.

By Ed Rampell

This year LAFF’s offerings ran the motion picture gamut. Like Charlyne Yi’s Paper Heart, director Marc Webb's (500) Days of Summer is a lighthearted rumination on romance and love with serious undertones, told with great wit and panache. On the other hand, as non-cincematic as James Lee’s Call If You Need Me is, Webb’s romantic comedy is slyly, stylishly cinematic and is creatively told out of chronological order.

Webb's inventive movie has montages of close ups of parts of Summer’s (played by the zany Zooey Deschanel) body that are reminiscent of a 1960s Jean-Luc Godard film. Indeed, in a fantasy sequence Webb and screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber wittily pay tribute to France’s New Wave, as well as to Ingmar Bergman’s 1957 classic, The Seventh Seal (although, oddly enough, the characters speak French, not Swedish). There are also droll references to the 1967 film, The Graduate..

It’s often said that in relationships one partner loves the other more, and (500) Days of Summer, which is the story of Summer’s affair with office mate and greeting card writer Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), epitomizes this unequal phenomenon. Sometimes he (or she, as the case may be) really justisn’t that into you. Deschanel -- who was so serious and vulnerable as a slighted daughter in Winter Passing (2005) -- proves herself to have quite an adept comic touch in here. Gordon-Levitt has just the right mixture of whimsy and angst as he romances the distant Summer, who has been scarred by her parents’ divorce. The supporting ensemble, including the obligatory male bonding buddies, adds to the movie’s merry musings about the meaning of love and life.

Unlike certain blabbermouth reviewers, I really don’t want to give away more of the plot to you, Dear Reader. Suffice it to say that this was probably one ofLAFF ’s most enjoyable and popular pictures (the screening I saw was completely sold out with a line outside the splendid Majestic Crest Theatre, with its lovelyblack-light mural of L.A.). Speaking of the cityscape, this film has some great cinematography of Los Angeles that calls to mind Gordon Willis’ camera work in Woody Allen’s 1979 ode to New York, Manhattan. And keep an eye out for an expressive, ebullient laugh out loud daydream sequence involving, among other things, UCLA’s marching band.

In addition to exploring the highs and lows of that little thing called love, (500) Days of Summer also touches upon the theme of getting out of a rut and reclaiming one’s creative mojo. This is the rarest of things: a (late) summer movie minus explosions that’s an ideal date flick and also provides food for thought. How do I love thee? Let me screen the ways.