(500) Days of Summer

[sasha_feather]

I put this on my Netflix Q because of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who I find interesting and nice to look at.

The narrator, in the beginning of the film, says something like, "There are only 2 kinds of people in the world. There are men, and there are women." Uh whut? Also the word "Bitch" appears in text on the screen before the film begins.

The story seems to be about a young man (JGL) who falls in love with a co-worker (Zooey Deschanel), and then is totally, epically heartbroken when she breaks up with him. I got about half way through the movie until I got incredibly bored and turned it off. There was only one scene I really liked, a musical-style montage with JGL dancing to express that "being in love" feeling. I also liked the comical scenes between the main character and his younger sister, but there weren't many of these. There were several scenes that seemed sexist and gross, such as the main character complaining about pretty girls being stuck up.

It's rare that I don't watch a whole movie; that's why this goes into the anti-recs bin.

Comments

[gool_duck]

Yeah, there was much sexist grossness from the main male character and his friends.

I thought the film showed pretty well how badly the JGL character was behaving in the relationship, and how bad in general his attitude to women was, a sort of 'come over here, stand on this pedestal, fulfil my romantic fantasies.' especially for it being from his point of view.

But since it *is* all from his point of view, it does get very icky.

**spoiler**

I liked the happy ending: he's not in a romantic relationship, she's happily married to someone else.

[sasha_feather]

Yeah, that's true; the film is not necessarily endorsing his POV but it is presenting it. That can be tricky territory-- The Social Network problem. I think it would have helped if there were someone around to call him out on his behavior, or to show a different perspective, which does happen in TSN.

I realize others might like this movie more than me! I'm not hugely into hetero relationship stories anyway.

[laceblade]

Thanks for the warning on this - I had planned to watch b/c I like JGL, but I'm glad I'm prepared beforehand!