(500) Days of Summer: A Review

Winfreys get excited about things. Generally it's dinner, but sometimes it's a movie that we want to see. (500) Days of Summer was a movie that I can safely say excited almost everyone in the Winfrey family. People have been lovin' on this movie since it premiered, and my hopes were high going in. It was pretty good, but it was not as good as I thought that it could be. I should just post this review by Dr. Evil and be done with it.

But I will continue. There were parts of this movie that were great. I liked that it was totally subjective. That was nice. Also, it wasn't subtle at all, but it wasn't trying to be. There were goofy sound cues and and bright contrasting colors everywhere. Scott Neustadter, the co-writer of the film, said that he wanted to make the film version of a pop song, which is very much how the film felt. That's why the soundtrack in this film worked so much better than that god-damned grating soundtrack for Juno. (500) Days of Summer openly acknowledged what it was (beginning with the title) and used that to its advantage. It was a relationship story as told by one 20-something year old who was clearly influenced by pop culture.

There were really great parts to this movie, which is where my main complaint stems from. After watching this film it was very obvious that the director had worked in music videos. Sure it was bright, and it looked nice, but it also felt very uneven. The fun stylistic parts were great. The dance sequence was great. The split screen part was awesome. The part in the karaoke bar, not so much. Any serious, conversational part felt a little weak. It was like they used up all of their energy on the fun, energetic sequences before and after, and what was left were these bland in-between pieces.

There were things I didn't like about the ending, and his dramatic speech, but I did enjoy this film. Sure, there were annoying characters (his little sister?), but the film had so many strong parts. I would give this film a solid B if I were into giving letter grades to films.