This nonlinear romantic comedy declares from the start that it is not a love story. Tom’s heart has already been broken by Summer when the story starts. It flips through the days of their relationship giving the viewer a peek into their relationship’s ups and downs as Tom tries to piece together what went wrong, and how he can get her back.
Tom is played by one of best young actors, Joseph Gordon-Levitt. On day one of meeting Summer, who is played by the ever charming Zoey Deschanel, Tom is smitten from the start. She’s just one of those girls. As the narrator tells us when she started working at an ice cream parlor, sales rose drastically. But Tom is a shy guy. So it takes Summer, after a night out of karaoke with co-workers, to make the first move. Tom believes he has found his soul mate. I mean she likes The Smiths, for goodness sakes. Even when she tells him that she doesn’t believe in love and isn’t looking for anything serious, Tom goes in head first nonetheless.
Director Marc Webb and writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber create a whimsical romance that feels like Woody Allen, only slightly less neurotic… slightly. The nonlinear structure and doses of fantasy will remind people of ETERNAL SUNSHINE OF THE SPOTLESS MIND, but in many ways it’s closer to the opening of MAGNOLIA. A narrator tells us facts about the characters at one moment and we find Tom slipping into fantasy moments such as a wonderful post-coital musical and a foreign film montage ode to Ingmar Bergman that mirrors Tom’s depression. One particular fine moment splits the screen and shows Tom’s expectations of the evening on the left and reality on the right.
Like is so often the case, the filmmakers flesh out this romance with rich characters. So many romantic comedies paint everything is broad strokes, which often rings false. These characters feel real. While we might not have lived the exact life experience, we relate to the feelings, which are universal. We empathize with Tom’s heartache. Gordon-Levitt makes Tom a helpless romantic. What would you expect from a Smiths fan? Thanks to her parents’ terrible marriage, Summer doesn’t believe in love. Strange for someone who gets a job at a greeting card company.
This film was a favorite at the Sundance Film Festival. It’s a charming romp that doesn’t compromise on the emotional impact that it can deliver. It understands that there are two people in a relationship and that hope and love (or infatuation) can cloud the clear signs that what one person is feeling isn’t the same as the other. How love clicks is always a mystery. As we flip through the days, we see how Tom fell hard and how Summer was simply Summer. When the sad and joyously ironic ending comes, both have lived and learned. As they say, summer always makes way for autumn.
Rick DeMott
Animation World Network
Creator of Rick's Flicks Picks
