(500) Days of Summer poster & wallpaper

Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel, Geoffrey Arend

This is a story of boy meets girl, begins the wry, probing narrator of 500 DAYS OF SUMMER, and with that the film takes off at breakneck speed into a funny, true to life and unique dissection of the u...( read more  read more... )nruly and unpredictable year-and-a-half of one young man's no-holds-barred love affair.

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82% liked it

316,146 ratings

Critics

87% liked it

184 critics

PG-13, 1 hr. 35 min.

Directed by: Marc Webb

Release Date: July 17, 2009

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Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel Tom Hansen Tom Hansen 500 Days of Summer 500 Days of Summer Summer Finn Summer Finn Summer Finn . Joseph Gordon Lewitt and Zooey Deschanel Summer Finn Zooey Deschanel Karaoke Night Summer Finn (500) Days of Summer Summer Finn 500 Days of Summer Zooey Deschanel
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Flixster Reviews (10,712)

  • rebvodka042099
    November 22, 2009
    rebvodka042099
    This movie is just extraordinarily tremendous. No sappy storytelling, no happy endings, no unusual situations, no unbelievable individuals. It's so real and so de facto, I would have no problem believing in it. A tale of unrequited love, of hearts breaking and mending and all ove...( read more)r again, of desire, of time and of coincidences. Breathing of all that makes our lives worthy.

    Joseph Gordon-Levitt is an actor who needs no introductions - he is splendid in whatever he does, may it be Tom Hansen, a romantic fool who believes in Fate and everlasting love, to Neil, a gay hustler, to Paul Ryder, an up-tight Mormon, to just about everything. Zooey Deschanel may be gorgeous and sweet, but her acting seems to be flat wherever she stars. She's just lacking the "wow" factor for me. Marc Webb's direction showed me that he's capable enough to do everything, not just video-clips for MTV. As for the soundtrack, it's one I always wish films had.

    Maybe it leaves you with a bittersweet taste, but for once, here is a real story instead of all the happily-ever-after crap. It reminded me a bit of another film I watched recently, Gigantic, which might have been one of the reasons I didn't rate it even higher. See it, enjoy it, get invested.
  • YLOWBSTARDreturns
    November 20, 2009
    YLOWBSTARDreturns
    A near perfect film that I will definately be seeing again and again. One of the year's finest.
  • gilbertgumphrey
    November 18, 2009
    gilbertgumphrey
    When Ponyo came out, I stole Roger Ebert's line about Almost Famous and said I wanted to hug the movie. When I finally saw (500) Days of Summer, I wanted to hug, kiss, lick, squeeze, and make gentle, passionate love to the movie. Finally, a 5 star film of 2009. Finally, a trul...( read more)y great movie in a year awash with disappointments and flops. I don't give out 5 stars easily - hell, this is the first time since Synecdoche New York, and only the second since Dark Knight. It's been a long time - but finally, it's arrived, and in the last place I expected. Do you want to see a truly original, completely different and awe-inspiring movie? Don't look here. That's not what this film is about. Instead, it takes all the formulas, all the cliches, all the things we expect in our romantic comedies, and twists it completely on it's head. If you think you know what's going to happen, you may be right, but it's doubtful you'll ever expect just how charming, adorable, thought provoking, emotionally stimulating, and just plain wonderful the journey will be.

    The opening of the movie warns us that it is not a love story. This is both true and false - it is absolutely a story about love, just not THIS particular love between THESE particular characters. It's the first awesome step of many that the film takes. A lot of people complain about feeling bummed out after the film, but how could they? The movie is as optimistic about love as any Kate Hudson/Matthew McCoughany film - it's just that it is also realistic and mature enough to know that sometimes that "true love" happens after many breakups, heart aches, and failed relationships where you thought everything was perfect until the awful "I think we should see other people" comes up. Most movies don't think like this. They only want us to see the one great relationship in the character's lives. In a way, that does indeed happen here, but only as a stepping stone to other real life loves. If you don't want to see this on a movie screen, then you must be too naive to realize it happens in real life all the time.

    The flick got a lot of attention for it's structure. It flips all over through time, sometimes showing us the happy days where Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel (my God, has any movie ever loved an actress as much as this sucker?) get to know each other, start their relationship, fall in love. And then in a flash, it'll cut to the days where they've broken up, and Levitt tries to move on, and Deschanel does with much greater ease. And isn't this exactly how we remember all our relationships? As Levitt's little sister even says in the film, we look back on our loves and remember only the best and worst of times, never the in between stuff. That the writers and director of (500) Days understood this shows what a bright bunch of brilliant fuckers they are. Indeed, the movie is written and shot in ways that will impress and surprise you - a hilarious song and dance routine, for instance, or the random third-person voice over that occasionally comments, or Levitt describing all the things he loves about Zooey and then later saying the exact same things and how much he hates them - or what could very well be the most brilliant scene of the year, a split screen showing what Levitt expects romantically from an evening, and what actually happens in reality. Cinematographically, I read that the director decided to change the colour tone of the film to match Zooey Deschanel's eyes, and there are so many close ups featuring her best physical aspect that you sometimes expect her to make out with the camera. She's wonderful in the film, as is Levitt, who does an awkward sort of charming that I didn't know was in him.

    Is the movie perfect? Nah. The scenes with Levitt's friends often fall flat, as the actors portraying them tend to overdo the "dude, I soooo love blowjobs!" kind of attitude. And I'm sure there's some pacing problems, or maybe the soundtrack gets a little too "indie" (actually, fuck that - I bloody love the soundtrack). But in all honesty, I don't much care about the flaws. Why should I? I haven't felt this much love for a film in many long, agonizing months. I deserved to see a great movie, dammit! (500) Days of Summer will make you laugh, it will make you nod knowingly, it will make you cry...hell, it might even make you a little unsure of your own relationships, past or present. And that's a good thing. We should be thinking about that stuff. And guess what? We don't when we watch the latest Kate Hudson movie. And for that reason alone, (500) Days of Summer is a landmark film.
  • kiriyamakazou
    November 13, 2009
    kiriyamakazou
    A fantastic romantic-comedy, that isn't afraid to explore the bitter side of love. Levitt is brilliant, capturing the insecure and emotionally vulnerable man, too seldom seen in films. The humour is also right on the money. Being awkward, witty and downright hilarious. Levitt's d...( read more)elivery of the line "I think you know what I need" had me laughing for the next 5 minutes. Deschanel is less impressive, making her character a bit too cold and harsh. A great actress would have been able to portray the role without any sense of villainy or maliciousness. It has a large number of "That is so true" moments, that again, are rarely seen on film. The fractured narrative is also a refreshing take on the genre, without becoming confusing. It uses it as a hindsight view of a relationship. It's a successful hijacking of an established genre, usually aimed at the opposite sex.
  • mistershinobi
    November 13, 2009
    mistershinobi
    Picture this: a group of friends go to the movies. One of them is a sweet, dreamy guy who recently broke-up with his sweet, rocker girlfriend but can't let go. Another one is a metalhead girl who can't move on after she broke-up with her boyfriend... more than a year ago. Two of ...( read more)them are a brand-new couple where she loves him more than he does. And the other one is me: a lonely film buff who recently came out as asexual after deciding love wasn't in his plans.

    The lights go down and we're all excited about the indie, bittersweet film we're going to watch. Smiles on our faces, laughs and thrills.

    The lights go up after an hour and a half and we're all in shock, in complete silence. Speechless, I turn to my friends and mutter an apology: we were not expecting to get so hurt with a film.

    From the outside, it may seem like just another indie, rom-com with cute moments and quirky characters but you can't begin to explain the perfection of this film til you experience it. The screenplay is like a ticking clock: everything works flawlessly in its right moment and place, every dialogue, every joke, every sweet moment, every painful memory. Both lead characters are so uncannily developed it's scary and tough to get through how real they are. The film is so perfectly built that we fall in love with Summer at exactly the same pace that Tom does, we are crushed by her actions and words as if she was doing it to us, and we hate her just as much as Tom does -or maybe even more. But we need her. We need her so badly that we can't stop watching, hoping for a lame happy ending. Hoping for a guiding light that tell us everything will be OK, that love is real and possible.

    But this is not a movie. This is life in its most painful, true portrayal I've ever seen. And life, like love, doesn't have happy endings.

    Hysterical scenes, unforgettable dialogues and brutal moments (you know you covered your eyes when the split-screen Expectations v. Reality scene came along), (500) Days of Summer is a painful experience, and that's awesome: it's exactly how movies are supposed to be. An experience to live in its fullest, to feel right in the guts. To reject, to love, to remember, to rinse, and repeat.
  • Abzurdoh
    November 22, 2009
    Abzurdoh
    Increible! Es padrisimo ir al cine y ver que aun hay directores que nos traen cosas nuevas y reales. Creo que de historias romanticas, esta es la pelicula que mejor retrata el amor de hoy dia... las sensaciones y situaciones. Yo creo que todos, o la mayoria, podemos sentirnos ide...( read more)ntificados con los personajes, sin importar su sexo. Y sus actuaciones son bastantes buenas... un elenco juvenil que merece respeto y merece ser recordado en la historia del cine (de estas peliculas padrisimas en las que todo el elenco es indispensable, ej. Little Miss Sunshine, Juno, The Lord of the Rings, etc.). Padrisima, altamente recomendable!
  • mpviana
    November 22, 2009
    mpviana
    Just like it's said, it's not a love story. It's a story about love. And a pretty good one ;)
  • spockvsegon
    November 21, 2009
    spockvsegon
    I've never loved a movie and hated it so badly at the same time. This movie says everything that needs to be said and it hurts to watch it sometimes, especially day 500 because I've been right there and most guys I know have been there too. It's told in a non-linear, absurdist ...( read more)fashion that in many ways makes it more realistic than most realistic movies. A+! Best movie of 2009 so far, probably going to be the best of the rest of 09 and is close to dethroning Finding Neverland as my favorite film. If you have chance to watch it, watch it. A
  • loreddd
    November 21, 2009
    loreddd
    It was good, emphasis on the good!
  • JuddBlue
    November 21, 2009
    JuddBlue
    I liked this quirky little film though the chick did my head in!

View All (500) Days of Summer Reviews

Critic Reviews

July 20, 2009
Marcy Dermansky, About.com

Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel light up the screen in Marc Webb's directorial debut (500) Days of Summer. That might sound corny, but they do. full review

July 17, 2009
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com

Everything that's wrong, on the surface, with (500) Days of Summer pales in light of everything that's going on beneath its surface. full review

July 17, 2009
Claudia Puig, USA Today

Much like Annie Hall did for a previous generation, (500) Days of Summer may be the movie that best captures a contemporary romantic sensibility. full review

July 16, 2009
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal

For all its ambitiousness, (500) Days of Summer feels synthetic and derivative, a movie that's popping with perceptions while searching for a style. full review

July 16, 2009
Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times

A fresh July breeze among recent (and mostly stale) romantic-comedy offerings. full review

July 16, 2009
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone

The ending is tidy and way too cute, but (500) Days is otherwise a different kind of love story: an honest one that takes a piece out of you. full review

July 16, 2009
Ty Burr, Boston Globe

The movie charmed me enough to send me out smiling, and I can see younger filmgoers taking it very much to heart. full review

July 16, 2009
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times

In romance, we believe what we want to believe. That's the reason 500 Days of Summer is so appealing. full review

July 15, 2009
Armond White, The New York Press

It is so annoyingly cute about the smartness of middle-class young white people in love that one quickly realizes it is only about that -- not love nor passion as everyone experiences it. full review

July 13, 2009
David Edelstein, New York Magazine

There's no real drama when the inner life of the female lead is so shrouded, even if that's the point. full review

View more (500) Days of Summer reviews at RottenTomatoes.com

Comments

  • macgyver56
    July 18, 2009
    macgyver56
    I really want to see this movie! It looks really nice!
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