Editorial
Front Page - Friday, September 18, 2009
The Critic's Corner
David Laprad
Have you ever enjoyed a movie so much that when it ended, you didn’t want to leave the theater? Maybe you stayed in your seat through the credits, hoping that when they were done, the movie would pick back up where it left off and you could follow the characters from there. That’s the way I felt as “(500) Days of Summer” faded to black after 95 minutes; I wanted to see what transpired when Tom Hansen met Autumn for coffee.
From the moment an author’s note appeared in the bottom left corner of the screen as “500 Days” began to unspool, I felt what Samara, my co-worker, must experience when she walks into a restaurant for the first time and the smells, ambience and friendly greeting win her over: I was grinning from ear to ear, and my smile didn’t fade until long after I’d left the theater.
Not that the entire movie is rosy, bouncy, happy, smiley, fun, fun, fun. No, there are moments when you can hear the splat of Tom’s heart as it hits the floor after Summer, “the one” he believes will make him happy, rips it from his chest. Being in love isn’t always a joy ride; sometimes it can do more damage than a head-on collision.
Rather, I smiled throughout “500 Days” because it’s observant, funny, tender and heartbreaking, all in perfect balance, and because the writing and direction are brilliant.
Like haiku, every word and image in “500 Days” counts. And if Tom had known a few things about Japanese poetry, he might have spared himself a world of pain. The reason Summer is capable of hurting him is because he wasn’t paying attention. The big, blinking neon signs were there, but his hopes had blinded him.
You might be thinking I’m giving too much away, but as the narrator whose voiceover opens the movie says, “500 Days” is not a love story. I only say this because, like Tom, you should know what you’re getting into. If you leave the theater shocked that Tom and Summer don’t live happily ever after, then you weren’t paying attention, either.
What I hope you feel as “500 Days” ends is exhilaration, partly because of the promise of what might happen during that cup of coffee, but also because of the skill that went into making the film.
For starters, the writing is witty and insightful. In one scene late in Tom and Summer’s relationship but early in the movie, Summer tells Tom they should stop seeing each other. When Tom asks why, Summer points out how they always argue like Sid and Nancy. Tom reminds Summer that Sid stabbed Nancy to death and says it’s unfair to compare him to the bass guitarist of the Sex Pistols, and then Summer says, “No, I’m Sid.”
I also love the final conversation between Tom and Summer. Meeting in what must be the only quiet refuge in downtown Los Angeles, Tom expresses his anger over what happened between them, Summer takes the blows without striking back and then consoles Tom without ever betraying who the movie has portrayed her to be. And when Tom asks her the question every viewer will be wondering at that point, she doesn’t sugarcoat her answer, and Tom becomes a better man because of her honesty. What a remarkable script by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber.
Just as impressive is the direction by Marc Weber, whose inventiveness behind the camera injects “500 Days” with a hypnotic energy. For example, in one scene, the world around Tom transforms into a black and white drawing that eventually disappears, leaving Tom in an expanse of nothing. No other visual effect this year is as clever as this one, which artfully projects the feelings of a jilted lover. And the scene in which Weber uses a split screen to show what Tom is expecting to take place during a party and what actually happens is pure filmmaking virtuosity.
More impressive than those crowd-pleasers, though, is the way Weber draws viewers into Tom’s head by returning to certain images again and again until we see what we’ve been missing. For instance, Tom ignores the look of uncertainty that crosses Summer’s face in a record store after a few months of dating, but in the end, when he thinks back on that moment, her expression looks like a big, blinking neon sign.
While I’ve told you a lot about “500 Days,” there’s more for you to discover on your own, including the fun stuff that takes place early on between Tom and Summer. And I hope you do, even if you have to wait until the DVD comes out. Without reservation, I can say “500 Days” is my favorite movie of 2009 so far.
E-mail David Laprad at dlaprad@hamiltoncountyherald.
com.
|
|