(500) Days of Summer

Do you believe in love? “It’s love, not Santa Claus”, says Tom, in a pivotal scene in the movie. But hey, it just might be something like that. Love is probably like this largely brilliant conspiracy we are all made to believe. Or is it not?

Though it has been categorized under the romcoms, (500) Days of Summer is much more spectacular than a run of the mill romantic comedy. It’s a funny, satirical, sad and introspective examination of two people with different perspectives of their relationship.

Tom(Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is the typical guy. Constantly in search of the one – he likes to call soulmate – and making it his only mission in life. He can also be impressed pretty easily. There is a sequence where Summer tells him that she likes The Smiths and sings out a line from the song he is listening. He is immediately floored, not just because she liked the same music, but the lines she chose to sing. In another instance, it might not say much about anything at all. He is so elated when he decides she is the one that he does a Bollywood-ish song and dance routine with all those extras in the background. He is the one passionate and emotional about their relationship, who needs to be reminded of their existence as a couple at regular intervals.

But Summer – played by the irressistable Zooey Deschanel(who has adorned my wallpaper even during her Trillian and Bridge to Terabithia days) – doesn’t make it any easier for him. Summer is not the typical girl. But she is typical in the sense that guys like Tom end up finding girls like Summer. She doesn’t believe in love because she doesn’t want the heartaches, the emotions, the troubles etc. Summer doesn’t like the serious stuff. Everything goes for her as long as both of them are happy and enjoying their time together. So when she feels different and walks out, Tom is unable to handle the inexplicable situation he finds himself in – his soul-mate is gone.

At first glance, it’s hard to tell what we or more importantly Tom, has learned from this experience but the basic premise is that love may exist, but there is no such things as miracles or fate. In fact the final narration spells it out for us. If we understand that nothing is meant to be, we would make this life of ours, and others, much easier on this planet.

The soundtrack is definitely a collection! The writing is brilliant and quite worthy of an Oscar nomination. The Academy has this bad habit of ignoring some of the finest screenplays that come out much earlier in the year. In 2007, Zodiac was widely ignored and in 2008, In Bruges sank without a trace. Both the movies(and their writing more so), extremely underrated. I hope (500) doesn’t follow suit.

(500) is quite a satisfying movie and gives its genre a whole new twist. If they make a sequel titled (500) Days of Autumn, I’ll be first in queue.

Into the Wild(2007)

The sea’s only gifts are harsh blows, and occasionally the chance to feel strong. Now I don’t know much about the sea, but I do know that that’s the way it is here. And I also know how important it is in life not necessarily to be strong but to feel strong. To measure yourself at least once. To find yourself at least once in the most ancient of human conditions. Facing the blind death stone alone, with nothing to help you but your hands and your own head.

Now you could say that Christopher McCandless was screwed up in his head. And I might just agree with you. But what he sure did was give all of us a great story that makes us think about life and trivial pursuits we are constantly after. We only talk about how stupid we are to run after wealth, career, wants and needs and etc. The next instant we find ourselves going back to the routine.

Alexander Supertramp, like he wished to be called, wanted to experience life on the road, in the wild. When he talks about career, dismissing it as a twentieth century creation that he doesn’t want to be part of, you know exactly what he is talking about because you can relate to it and somehow you find the urge to agree. And then you look around yourself and to avoid the embarrassment, banish it as an irresponsible comment by an immature young man.

I had not discovered Kristen Stewart outside of the numerous polls on Sexiest Women Alive and Maxim Top 100s. Though she appears for roughly 15 minutes, it’s not just an appearance. A subtle performance played to perfection, and maybe the only reason is that she probably played herself. Now if only she gets meatier roles outside of crap like Twilight and Edward Cullen chic-vamp-lits. And what more, she gets to sing the best song(below) from a truly awesome soundtrack(Mostly songs written by Eddi Vedder exclusively for the movie – but not this one).

It could be perfectly argued that when Chris did face the blind death stone, his head did not exactly help him. But then these are speculations and the big picture is far from just a story of a screwball graduate. There is some takeaway for anyone that watches this story. You may not witness a paradigm shift in perspective and complete that Rubik’s cube. But you’ll surely be presented with some good moves.

He says this:

I will miss you too, but you are wrong if you think that the joy of life comes principally from the joy of human relationships. God’s place is all around us, it is in everything and in anything we can experience. People just need to change the way they look at things.

…and goes on to realize the following:

Happiness is only real, when shared.

Now you do the math.