review - 500 Days of Summer

Welcome, readers, to my first movie review! Today's today's film is Marc Webbs' directorial debut, 500 DAYS OF SUMMER. First my quick review

Overall - 2.5 out of 5 stars
The Good - deals with relationships in a very real and familiar way that can be very
touching at times
The Bad - doesn't really delve beyond the surface of the characters
The Ugly - Ultimately way to indie for it's own good, including a 12 year-old girl
giving sage advice, and the last line of the film will make you puke.

Extended take (may include spoilers)
For those of you who don't know, 500 Days of Summer is about the 500 days Tom is in love with, dating and getting over the girl of his dreams, Summer. Get it - 500 days of Summer, it's like a pun, isn't that cute and clever? Well, personally I think that depends on execution and balance between honesty and annoying indie preciousness. In this film the latter is used way to often as a cover for the film's lack of depth.
To begin with, the film as a whole feels like the director's personal examination of his own romantic history. This isn't bad in and of itself. In fact, the relationship between Tom and Summer was very reminiscent of my own dating history in high school. For me it was very easy to relate to the guy looking for the girl of his dreams and seeing it in someone who is so obviously not right for him. I imagine most people at one time or another have had the experience of falling for someone who is not looking for a serious relationship. Tom believes he will be the one to change Summer and make her want to be in a serious relationship. But here's the thing (spoilers) people who say they don't want a serious relationship often mean just that. Watching Tom misinterpret signals and see things in Summer that aren't there is both humorous and heartbreaking. This is the film biggest strength.
What brings the film down is that, because you sense the source material is immensely person, the film pulls its punches and fails to let you get too close to the characters. When Tom and Summer break up (not a spoiler, it's like the first scene in the movie) She describes there relationship being like Sid and Nancy, where she is Sid Vicious and Tom is Nancy. A quote like that makes you feel like you could be in for some pretty intense fighting later on, as we learn about how the relationship breaks apart. It is, however, just a cheap joke pandering to the hipster crowd. There is no fighting in the movie, really. Tom yells one time that we see, and the fight is quickly resolved. Again and again, Tom talks about his relationship has if it is an epic romance, when really, Summer is just some girl he's in love with. I think this is very intentional, we are meant to see that despite the strong feelings Tom has, This whole relationship is relatively unremarkable. The problem is that the film goes out of its way to tell us how amazing Summer is while insisting she's just a girl. The after-school special narrations, cutesy post coital dance numbers, etc . . . are all placed to tell us that even thought she's just a girl, Summer is special. Well, she's not. at all. I love Zooey Deschanel, but her character in this movie is just another independent woman who is afraid to let Tom get too close. She is protective of her personal space, which is fine and human and normal. But from the beginning of the movie until the god-awful last line of the film, 500 days of summer insists on being more important than it is, while trying to be in on the joke at the same time, leaving the viewer drenched in way too much hipster high concept cliche.

On a final note, the guy who directed this film will be responsible for making Spiderman broody and dark and ironic, God help us all.