I attended Gen Art's advance screening of '(500) Days of Summer' tonight. I went with high hopes for romance. (There is nothing more satisfying than a happy ending when you most expect it.) The film was definitely going to be an 'artsy' one--Zooey Deschanel seems to favor the kind (even her role in the uber-commercial 'Elf' was subversive)--but the trailer seemed to offer the promise of love--or at least love-making--and indie romance is better than none. But [without disclosing too much] '(500) Days of Summer' didn't deliver the happy ending I was hoping for.The filmmakers depicted a stunningly truthful and beautiful portrayal of love's realistic pitfalls. But in the film's cinematic universe, the characters are far more attractive than the rest of us and are able to pick up the pieces of a broken heart at a rather un-realistically rapid pace. The leads, played by Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, show much greater resilience and experience a good deal more luck than us mere non-actor mortals.
The movie is out on July 17th. See it for yourself. Perhaps the ending will satisfy you and your bizarre desire for realism in art. If nothing else, the soundtrack was pretty rad, featuring the likes of The Smiths, Feist, Hall & Oates, my absolute fave Regina Spektor, and other fine musicians.
