(500) DAYS OF SUMMER

Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber
Directed by Marc Webb
Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel


Summer: I’ve never told anybody that before.
Tom: I guess I’m not just anybody.

I don’t think there could have been better timing for me to see (500) DAYS OF SUMMER than the precise moment I saw it. Well, last night would have been fine too but it was sold out so I had to settle for today instead. The reason I say this is because I just met someone and we just started something that neither one of us can define just yet, just like Tom and Summer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel) in the movie. For years, I was like Tom; I believed in the one and in love. Then, I experienced what I identified at the time as love. It went sour and so did my belief in possibilities when it came to matters of the heart and mixing those matters with other human beings. And so I became a lot more like Summer. She likes her life alone; she likes making her own destiny. After watching this modern day romance though, I think I can fairly say that I am somewhere now in between the two but I’m not sure if that’s any better.


I am also of two minds on this film. It is incredibly infectious. First time feature filmmaker, Marc Webb, infuses his Sundance hit with plenty of fresh visual style and an appropriate hipster soundtrack to match. As a result, the film beams with possibility while speaking directly to the all the skeptics out there. That certainly isn’t an easy dichotomy to reconcile but it teeters ever so closely toward an underlying bitter tone that every so often threatens the film’s seemingly natural exuberance. It could be argued that this is the nature of love as hate would be its opposite and therefore naturally waiting around for when love gets flipped upside down. Tom and Summer just had me feeling so much joy though that I wanted nothing to do with the nastier side of things and, as the 500 days of their relationship were told out of sequence, we know the whole time that things will eventually go awry. I suppose that my resistance would mean that I may be leaning more toward love triumphant.


An authoritative male narrator announces at one point that there are only two types of people out there, men and women. The statement is instantly jarring and limits the perspective of the film. Why must this love story be told from only Tom’s perspective? He is not your typical straight guy because he is sensitive and a romantic but does that make Summer’s supposedly unique perspective any less valid? After all, she is the girl who doesn’t believe in happily ever after. At times, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER is trying so hard to be different and hoping that we won’t notice that it makes it difficult for the characters to truly be real. They are mostly just their unique perspectives, and as Tom is the clear protagonist, Summer all too often ends up being vilified for what she is doing to him because she isn’t as fleshed out as she could be. Still, Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel take the somewhat thinly designed characters and make them not only believable but entirely endearing and lovable.


Summer told Tom from the very beginning; she was not looking for anything serious. Tom, like most people who think with their emotions, heard her but believed what he needed to in order to appease his fluttering heart. We too were warned; the tagline from the film reads quite clearly, “This is not a love story. This is a story about love.” I should have known better than to expect anything different than what I was told to expect from the very beginning. And even though (500) DAYS OF SUMMER seems to want to break down a relationship into just the good times or just the bad times, it had enough love to remind me that it is really about all of those times combined. Maybe I’ll see it again and this time I’ll bring my date.

THE HAPPENING

Written and Directed by M. Night Shyamalan
Starring Mark Wahlberg, Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo


Elliot Moore: Plastic. I’m talking to a plastic plant. I’m still doing it.

Something the supposed contemporary auteur, M. Night Shyamalan, has never been quite good at is getting directly to the point. He usually likes to keep us guessing the whole way through and by the time the expected twist tries to catch us off guard, we are either completely floored or entirely annoyed. In his latest offering, THE HAPPENING, he finally learns how to get straight to the punch but that, as it turns out, is just as problematic as keeping us in suspense. Shyamalan seems as if he has been somewhat humbled by his recent difficulties finding an audience but from the moment his name appears ominously in the credits as the man who does everything (writing, producing and directing), his presence looms over the premise with an air of obnoxious knowing.


THE HAPPENING first hits Central Park and we are given no time to breathe before the scenario turns apocalyptic. People stop in their tracks, repeat random phrases and find interesting or perhaps just easily accessible manners in which to kill themselves. No one knows what’s happening, except for Shyamalan, who appears to be reveling in the delirium from the rustling trees above. The affliction spreads and the mystery is at first certainly engrossing. Whatever intensity the scenario creates though is unnervingly undone by the cast’s delightfully laughable attempt at keeping it classical. Mark Wahlberg as enthusiastic hopeful, Elliot Moore, leads his wife and best friend (Zooey Deschanel and John Leguizamo) toward safety, despite having no idea where that is. His naïve optimism is cute when it should be compelling but he can hardly be blamed for what is clearly Shyamalan’s overall approach.


The classical style and contemporary reality ultimately clash and it becomes clear that Shyamalan’s biggest obstacle is Shyamalan himself. His bigger ideas are solid but muddled by the little ideas he throws in to keep things interesting. Naturally, the tragic events are initially assessed to be terrorist attacks. Shyamalan paints America as a panic stricken populace that know who to blame when they cannot explain what is happening. They don’t even question the possibility of it being a more organic threat until too much damage has been done. This is in itself heavy enough to sustain intrigue while making smooth criticism of the American government as shepherd and its people as sheep, but when you meet the people he is criticizing, they are so futile, prattling on when they should be in crisis mode, you wish they would just breathe in the bloody toxins already and die. The promise of a more satisfying film always seems just out of reach and a little help behind the scenes, primarily in the writing department, would help Shyamalan find the focus he so desperately needs.


THE HAPPENING is passably suspenseful, occasionally intriguing but mostly ineffective. It feels contrived, as though Shyamalan were trying too hard to win back our graces, doing so in such a false fashion. Perched comfortably at his pulpit, he preaches about protecting the environment but without ever communicating any actual passion for it. Consequently, the pet cause feels more functional than it does pertinent. And all the while, you can feel him looking down at you, disappointed that we don’t get his genius when what he really should be doing is looking inward to see that perhaps he is just not communicating as clearly as he could. Then he might be able to see that we want to love him; he’s just making it too hard to do so.