(500) Days Of Summer Bliss

This past week found me catching the well-received (500) Days Of Summer starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (of Third Rock From The Sun) and the quirky Zooey Deschanel.

From the moment the movie started I had a feeling it would be my kind of film. It had a narration that just hooked me from the first word. What's more is that this is one of those "real" films where the characters just seem so absolutely normal and out of every day life. That's not to say the whole film is that way. It's isn't. In fact there's quite a bit of strangeness but it's also all perfectly welcome here.

Essentially we get a chance to look into the relationship of the two main players from start to finish and it's done in a mainly fresh way that reminded me a bit of Memento. The narrative doesn't run in reverse but, instead, we are bounced around from say, Day 1 to Day 200 in an instant and then back to perhaps Day 42 soon thereafter. These approaches always make me wonder how the story would work (or not) if it were played sequentially through. It works here so I'm just fine with it.

The script is just fantastic. Everything about this relationship and their lives rings true and anyone with any decent dating experience will feel a connection to it. The acting is also first-rate. I really can't think of anything in this movie that I can complain about.

If you don't like this movie perhaps you just should stick with action films.