(500) Days of Summer

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Just to start it off, I mentioned in my last review that while all of these movies are very similar at heart, each one is sort of unique in what it offers in the healing process for the viewer. I'm going to try to get those details out of the way from the get-go on the rest of these. Last time, it was about the people who you meet along the way, offering advice and not necessarily having them all be potential love interests. Sometimes a new friend can go a long way.

'500 Days' is a little bit tougher, but it almost stands as a sort of reflection of things the viewer might be going through if trying to heal from a bad breakup. This movie is fantastic at showing not so much the "pathetic" side, but just the hurt side of things. It's one of the most relatable breakup movies I've ever seen, as it not only gives us pain but joy as well. The whole film has to do with his mindset ranging from what it's like to be in love to what it's like to have your heart broken. I suppose it could be said that this has to do more with how one heals oneself over time.

To keep things relatively simple, the film offers a nonlinear narrative, going back and forth in a 500-day timeline that looks at the relationship between Tom (​Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel). From the get-go, we know that Tom and Summer have broken up. The story serves as a sort of portrayal of Tom's own memories over the course of that time. I have to say, I quite admire how it's done, as it offers up everything someone goes through in a relationship. One I find most important is the idea of going from fawning to bitter about the same person. It goes to show that we often don't really know what we're getting into, but it also goes to show that sometimes we can be pretty childish about things.

Another thing the film does is show the different angles of advice one can get for their situation. Tom does a bit of a back and forth between his friends McKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) and Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler) and his half-sister, Rachel (Chloë Grace Moretz), who happens to be an expert on women at a very young age (this predates her role as Hit-Girl in 'Kick-Ass' by a year). It's not so much the advice itself that I enjoy here, but the idea of who can offer it - even a kid's perspective can offer something very solid.

This might be a tough one for someone to get through if they literally just broke up with their significant other. However, I appreciate how incredibly "real" it all is. Even though there are some fantasy sequences here and there, the right feelings really get across to the viewer. To top everything off, the film has its ending. I won't spoil it, entirely, but it offers up some bittersweet humour to the story, and indeed, leaves us with the idea that "life goes on". It can be a little depressing for a healing process, but it's a good thing to see if you want to move on but can't quite get there. It's a very solid title, especially for anyone reflecting bitterly on a past relationship.

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