At some point most guys have had at least one Summer Finn in their lives. Someone who was in every way perfect and for a short period of time, she reciprocates those feelings. Then, with no warning, things subtly change. The memories, later, reveal her growing uncertainty but those clues were ignored at the time because, hey, we're perfect together! After all is said and over, you're left wondering why she doesn't realize how perfect we were. Truth is, we weren't perfect. Only she was perceptive enough to realize that. Perhaps this is why, a full week after seeing "(500) Days of Summer" (as of this writing), I can't get it out of my head. It's not like the basic story itself is, on its own, an original idea. Yes, we have often seen human males meet human females and fall in love with them on a movie screen... just not quite this originally and charmingly. Honestly, the only thing I didn't like about this film is that I couldn't go see it again the next day.

"(500) Days of Summer" has little to do with the season of Summer and everything to do with Tom Hanson's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) on-again, off-again -- not really, I'll get to that in a second -- relationship with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). You see, this is Tom's story. Oh, sure, we spend plenty of time with Summer but this story is unapologetically told completely from the male perspective. We see what Tom sees. Or, perhaps, it should be said, that we see what Tom wants to see -- which is hilariously displayed on his walk to work the morning after (ahem) consummating the relationship. When Tom is on top of the world, so is the whole city. (Not to mention a certain "Star Wars" character that makes a cameo during this scene.)


The film starts on day one, the first day Tom meets Summer who just started at the greeting card company where he works. We quickly flash forward to a day in the early 400s where Summer breaks up with Tom citing that their relationship reminds her of Sid and Nancy. Tom takes offense at being compared to Sid Vicious -- who stabbed Nancy Spungen -- until Summer corrects him and explains that she's Sid in this scenario. The rest of the film flashes backward and forward -- sometimes at a breakneck pace -- giving direct contrast to the good times and the not so good times. When the times are good, as a viewer, you just want to hang out with these characters. You want to be around them. Why wouldn't you? They're Tom and Summer! When times are not so good, it can be heartbreaking. But, we never get a glimpse of those elusive last days of the 500 until the end of the film.

Image © Fox Searchlight

The pop-culture references and music play a huge and pretty fantastic role in the story. But, in the end, this is about the 500 days of Tom and Summer. There's no grandiose reveal on exactly why things happen the way they do; there's no overly-dramatic heated confrontation. There are only inconspicuous gestures that foreshadow what's to come no matter how much the other tries to ignore them. Everyone has their own reality. This story is Tom's reality, not exactly a true reality. One of the best scenes in the film involves a split screen showing Tom's hopeful, yet not unrealistic expectations for an evening side-by-side with reality. Reality is not always pretty and not always what we want or expect. This movie isn't exactly what I thought I wanted to see or expected, but that's why it's damn near perfect.

Grade: A


"Mike's Pulse" is a column written by transplanted Midwesterner and current New Yorker Mike Ryan. For any compliments or complaints -- preferably the former -- you may contact Mike directly at miker@starpulse.com or submit reader questions for celebrites to Mike on Twitter.

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