Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE: (500) Days of Summer (2009)

This is topic (500) Days of Summer (2009) in forum Film Handlers' Movie Reviews at Film-Tech Forum ARCHIVE.

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Posted by Sam Graham (Member # 2889) on 08-07-2009, 08:35 PM:

CINEMA: Cinemark Movies 12, Ames, IA
AUDITORIUM: 6
PRESENTATION: 35mm/probably DTS Digital (most of the trailers played in Cinemark Super Mega Craptacular Analog Stereo Surround)
PRESENTATION PROBLEMS: Sound leakage from Auditorium 7 (G.I. Joe)
RATING: Three stars (out of four)

Aside from the sound leakage, this was by far the best presentation I've experienced in this building in recent memory. I knew it wasn't just my imagination that this building was once capable of decent sound.

THE PLOT: Two people like The Smiths. Why, I'll never know. Wackiness ensues.

The movie covers several key days of a 500 day span of a relationship in non-sequential order. The day number appears before most scenes. We jump forward, we move back. The time-shifting doesn't play out as clever or as necessary as "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"...actually, some of the movie kind of reminded me of "When Harry Met Sally" in a way.

It's not a comedy, though it feels like it in the beginning. The funniest moment in the movie happens before you see a single image. But there are a lot of good and clever sequences here. The best is a split-screen "Expectation"/"Reality" sequence that really hit the nail on the head. That is this film's truly brilliant moment.

Too bad the movie ends on a really dumb punchline. Pretty well done and just different enough to be special to many, I'm sure.