This movie was directed by Marc Webb in 2009 who also directed Spider-man 1 &2. Leading actors Summer (Zooey Deschanel) and Tom (Joseph Gorden-Levitt) tell a love story that isn't your typical guy-meets-girl-guy-loses-girl-guy-gets-girl-back. These two meet each other and then it jumps forward to a part where things go wrong. This movie keeps going back and forth showing their "friendship" develop and then showing moments of awkwardness and pain. Tom ends up falling for Summer; she, however, does not. I feel that these two taught each other a lesson. Tom showed Summer that love is real when you find the one and Tom thinks that Summer "taught" him that she wasn't for him, that soul mates are not real. But what she really taught him was to be who he really was meant to be and to not be afraid of being him. This led him to quitting his job that he hated and pushing himself to be an architect, which is what he really wanted. Tom needed that push and Summer gave that to him.
I enjoyed the fact that the movie showed the lives of Tom and Summer when they were kids, giving us a brief history of where they were coming from. I love the use of the jump cutting; they started with Day 1, the meet, and then it jumped to Day 309, where things go wrong. The director would show them having a good time, laughing all the way to the part where she doesnt' look happy and he's trying to please her like Day 1 but she just isn't feeling it. Webb just keeps going back and forth with happy scenes to sad scenes forcing you to realize and try and figure out if these two are going to work things out and stay together or break up and move on. Tom and Summer needed each other at that time in their lives to be able to live happily at the end of the 500 days. The music was extremely moving. It pulled me into their 'love' story at the beginning when everything was fine and dandy. Each piece of music he chose fit the scene or section of the movie and complimented the emotion Webb wanted from the audience.
I thought the characters played their roles quite well. Especially Tom, I could feel the pain and the happiness he went through when he was falling in love to the point where he's getting his heart stomped on. It was obvious that Summer cared but she clearly just wanted to stay friends. At first it appears that Summer was starting to feel something for Tom, and that hope made you believe she would fall for him because they were holding hands, kissing, and sleeping with each other but all this time she just wanted to have fun and she knows Tom is falling for her yet she doesn't pull away. Messing with his heart, his emotions. It could not be easy to do that to someone because in real life, I couldn't bring myself to toy with another's emotions like that. I can see though how the audience is rooting for them two to stay together because their chemistry looked as though they were made for each other. Or so we thought.
This movie, with an unexpected twist at the end, will have you cheering for either Tom or Summer; but mostly Tom because he's the one with the broken heart, the real struggle. This movie had a very moving portrayal. It made me experience emotions of joy and anger with Tom and Summer's "relationship". I highly recommend watching this film, it's definitely a must see if you want to see two people struggle to find that happiness that many are too scared to find.
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