Alright, so, the Nashville Film Festival. You know it's the Nashville Film Festival when the writer of one of the songs on the soundtrack is there to accept a certificate from BMI to congratulate him on the song having been played 4 million times and people in sparkly outfits called Doyle and Debbie kick off the screening with a song about trailer park residents.
500 Days Of Summer is going to be the indie hit of the year. It's easy to tell that from the second you see Zooey Deschanel's bangs in the trailer. From the second you see Joseph Gordon-Levitt sporting a cardigan, a tie, a messenger bag, and giant headphones. From the second the Smiths are mentioned. And it all matches up. Belle & Sebastian are namechecked within the first ten minutes, Regina Spektor and Black Lips songs are heavily featured, and the credits roll to Mumm-Ra. Say what you will, but I am in love with this movie.
Gordon-Levitt is earnest and heart-wrenching as Tom, a greeting card writer who knows deep-down inside that he's risking a broken heart, but keeps on hoping anyways. Deschanel as Summer is his heartbreaker who never does anything truly hateful; Marc Webb, the director, really drove that point home in the Q&A session. She is who she is--a person who is not easily tied down. The chemistry between them is pretty much what drives the movie, and it's certainly effective. The performances come across as being natural. This is a film about genuine people--the way it looks may be stylised and beautifully orchestrated, but the characters aren't.
This movie's got style. Webb's previous work on music videos really shows, and the parade-like sequence after Tom and Summer have sex for the first time is a stand-out, as is a scene where Tom envisions himself in a variety of classic films. The way color is used is great--blue is used to represent Summer--and I want all of Tom's and Summer's outfits, except for the part where Tom wears a brown jacket with black shirts all of the time. It was a beautiful world to be in for those 90-odd minutes.
An observation: On numerous occasions, Tom wears Joy Division t-shirts, one with the Unknown Pleasures artwork and one with "Love Will Tear Us Apart," but the band's music is never used in the film. I can only conclude that their sound is too heavy for the tone of the movie; despite being a story about heartbreak, there's still a sense of lightness to it.
