Told out-of-order (like
Memento),
(500) Days of Summer is a break-up movie that’s as much a coming-of-age story as a romantic comedy. You see the break-up happen early on. While that would normally ruin any sort of suspense, this dramedy (or "bromance," if you will) doesn't suffer for its out-of-sequence narrative. Rather, the relationship between Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is intriguing enough to make the movie worth watching. The plot is simple: Tom meets Summer and instantly falls in love. They start dating, but Summer makes it clear she isn't looking for a committed relationship. Tom accepts that at first. But it's not long before he becomes jealous and possessive. Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt have great chemistry, even if the tension between them sometimes makes it difficult to watch. The film comes out today on DVD, and director Marc Webb recently spoke about its release and its numerous extras (audtions, featured commentary, storyboards, etc.).
(500) Days of Summer got great reviews. How satisfied were you with how well it did at the box office?
I was pretty satisfied. I feel like we were competing with movies that were literally 10 or 15 times the size of our movie. I think we held our own. There’s a fantasy that your movie will do $100 million, which obviously it didn’t do. I don’t feel like I was disappointed. It seemed to click with the right people, so I feel really good about it.
