(500) Days of Summer
List Price:
Our Price: $9.63
You Save: $10.35 (52%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $5.67 (click here)
Category: DVD
See more DVD releases
Buy this DVD movie at online store in your country
Canada
Canada
DVD Cover Information
Actor: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey DeschanelBrand: FOX
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Subtitled); French (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language); French (Dubbed); Spanish (Dubbed)
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, DVD, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: 2.40:1
Running Time: 95 minutes
DVD Release Date: 2009-12-22
Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: Fox Searchlight
Movie Reviews of (500) Days of Summer
Movie Review: You can ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event
Summary: 5 Stars
(500) Days of Summer was kind of a role reversal where the girl, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), is afraid of commitment and just wants a casual friendship, or at most, friends with benefits; while Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) thinks he has found his soul mate, the mythical woman he has been searching for 'The One.' Summer is super attractive, as a montage, early on, informs us. When she worked in an ice cream parlor, sales where up 12%, and whenever she rented an apt it was 12.5% below market value, because men and landlords of all ages could not resist her charms. She wasn't my cup of oolong, but I could see why Tom would fall for her. Could also see how dumb and foolish Tom was being. That was half the fun. You'd think his character would grate on your nerves, because he was such a crybaby, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt really pulled off that amazing tightrope walk. Maybe it was his sweater vests...
This was a very modern comedy. It was an Annie Hall for the new millennium. Like Annie Hall, it used a variety of narrative techniques, one being a narrator who sounds like a sociologist, who tells us upfront that this is not a love story. Another was that before every scene there are numbers denoting which day in the 500-day relationship it is. Uh oh, I thought. That could soon grow tiresome. It wasn't bad, though, because they didn't show every single tedious day in sequence, but rather jumped back and forth.
Though mostly the movie glided along, hewing fairly close to a realistic albeit exceedingly clever and well-written reality, sometimes it veered wildly away from the humdrum. For instance, there is a dance number that even includes an animated blue bird. This was a high point of the film, Believe It Or Not. It is funny that Elvis Costello, though he didn't claim to have made it up, once said that rock journalists, or writing about music, was like dancing about architecture. Well, this movie has Tom, a greeting card writer by trade, who has a dream deferred about being an architect. In a way (500) days of Summer is also like dancing about architecture, but in a good way. When Tom is asked why he gave up architecture for greeting cards, he responds thusly:
--------
Tom: I guess I just figured, why make something disposable like a building when you can make something that lasts forever, like a greeting card.
Sometimes Tom looks directly at the camera and all but winks--briefly breaching the Fourth Wall--but only if it is some truly amazing coincidence that verges on cosmic significance. Speaking of cosmic significance, there are several coincidences in this film that would indicate that the screenwriter has been reading my mail, or at the very least, that he has acquired my infinite playlist. All the music choices were uncanny, though I won't go into why that is so. Suffice it to say that "Sugar Town," the song Summer chose to sing at karaoke, made famous by Nancy Sinatra, written for her by Lee Hazelwood, figures prominently in my own saga, as does virtually ever single song on the soundtrack. "Here Comes Your Man" by The Pixies, "Please, Please, Please, Let Me Get What I Want" and "There Is a Light That Never Goes Out" by The Smiths, and "Train in Vain" by The Clash. Not quite as fraught with esoteric meaning, but still great musical choices were songs by Carla Bruni (First Lady of France, married to Nicolas Sarkosy), Patrick Swayze, Hall & Oates, Simon & Garfunkel, The Black Lips, Feist, & Regina Spektor. There are pop culture references galore, all on-target. Haven't seen the likes of it since Seinfeld brought his Pez Dispenser to that piano recital. Best Ikea reference since Fight Club. Tom is shown wearing not one, but two, Joy Division t-shirts!
Tom: Man, no. No jobs. I'm still unemployed. We - we kissed.
Worthy of mention are Tom's support system consisting of Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler), who has been going out with his girl friend Robin since High School but gets a vicarious thrill from hearing about Tom's escapades; his little sister Rachel (Chloe Moretz), who acts more like his big brother, giving him tough love and good advice which he mostly ignores; and McKinzie (Geoffrey Arend), who hasn't gone out with anyone since a brief fling in High School, who also gets a vicarious thrill out of hearing about Tom's escapades:
McKinzie: Well, you know, Henry Miller said the best way to get over a woman is to turn her into literature
Bottom line: (500) Days of Summer is a delightful post-modern romantic comedy romp with great performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and the delightful Zooey Deschanel. Though boy meets girl, he doesn't get girl, or at least he doesn't get to keep girl. Though Tom thinks that it is a tragedy, it was really a comedy, and one day he will look back and laugh. One suspects that, like Henry Miller, the screenwriters of (500) Days of Summer were getting over a woman by turning her into a great film, if not exactly into literature (not a judgment on their relative merits, merely acknowledging that they are different mediums).
PS: Zooey Deschanel is a very talented singer with exquisite taste. Her favorite singer is Ella Fitzgerald. She is in a group with M. Ward, and also another cabaret group. In Elf, she sang "Baby, It's Cold Outside," with Will Ferrell's elf. She is an interesting young lady who comes from a very hip family; in fact, she was named after a character in a J.D. Salinger novel. Though J.D. has recently passed on, Holden Caulfield, and the Glass Family, lives on.
Tom: Hmmm. How about..."Every day you make me proud. But today you get a card."
The Great Buck Howard (2008) Matthew Gray Gubler was Russell
Flakes (2007) Zooey Deschanel was Miss P. Katz
The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (Widescreen Edition) (2005) Zooey Deschanel was Trillian
Havoc (Unrated Version) (2005) Joseph Gordon-Levitt was Sam
Garden State (2004) Geoffrey Arend was Karl Benson
Mysterious Skin (Deluxe Unrated Director's Edition) (2004) Joseph Gordon-Levitt was Neil
The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou - Criterion Collection (2004) Matthew Gray Gubler was Intern #1
Manic (2001) (2001) Joseph Gordon-Levitt was Lyle and Zooey Deschanel was Tracy
Almost Famous (2000) Zooey Deschanel was Anita Miller
10 Things I Hate About You (1999) Joseph Gordon-Levitt was Cameron James
Narrator: If Tom had learned anything... it was that you can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence. That's all anything ever is. Nothing more than coincidence.
Write your own review
Summary of (500) Days of Summer
In this quirky romantic comedy about love and fate, a young greeting card writer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is hopelessly, helplessly searching for the girl of his dreams...and his new co-worker, Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel), may just be ?the one.? But the 500 days of their offbeat relationship reveal (in no particular order) that the road to happiness can be unpredictable, uncontrollable?and unbelievably funny!- Audio: English: 5.1 Dolby Surround / Spanish & French: Dolby Surround
- Language: Dubbed & Subtitled: English, French & Spanish
- Theatrical Aspect Ratio: Widescreen: 2.40:1
500 Days of Summer is like the American Apparel of movies, in that tries really hard to be hip--so hard it sometimes evokes an involuntary cringe. The perfect soundtrack (indie-pop infused with cleverly ironic 80?s hits), the smart cinematography, the occasionally broken fourth wall? It?s a natural progression from mid-00?s ?youth-culture? flicks like Garden State and it does a good job rounding out the decade. Everything in this dramedy resembles a music video and the characters are twentysomethings once again not living up to their full potential. 500 Days of Summer is touted as being really unique and original--it?s not. But that?s not to say that it?s not worth watching; it is, and mostly because of the leads. Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel play a couple whose relationship story is told through a series of out-of-order flashbacks. The non-linear storytelling means we hop moment to moment from sweet, romantic and fun to crushingly desperate and sad, because the ultimate point here is that even when we believe we may have found The One, said soulmate might not feel the same way. Gordon-Levitt is an exciting actor to watch and after a succession of very serious, very troubled roles, it?s a pleasure to see him here as a mostly well-adjusted young guy whose biggest problem is that he loves someone who doesn?t love him back. He?s the hero, and as such, Deschanel?s Summer Finn becomes the bad guy a little bit. But Deschanel plays it all big-eyed, conflicted and real and so you can?t help but forgive her. The much-lauded musical scene is tremendously joyful; if it doesn?t put a smile on your face, nothing will. 500 Days of Summer isn?t groundbreaking, but it's an entertaining movie about hip, beautiful people whose lives you can only enjoy for about two hours before getting back to your own. --Kira Canny
Stills from (500) Days of Summer (Click for larger image)
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Similar DVD Movies
DriveSony; Release date: 2012-01-31; DVD
Best price: $11.80
Price in other shops:
The NotebookWarner Brothers; Release date: 2005-02-08; DVD
Best price: $3.70
Price in other shops:
Crazy, Stupid, Love (+ UltraViolet Digital Copy)Warner; Release date: 2011-11-01; DVD
Best price: $8.98
Price in other shops:
Garden StateFOX Home Entertainment; Release date: 2004-12-28; Published: 2004-12-01; DVD
Best price: $5.65
Price in other shops:
50/ 50Universal; Release date: 2012-01-24; DVD
Best price: $11.86
Price in other shops:
Juno (Single-Disc Edition)Fox; Release date: 2008-04-15; DVD
Best price: $3.98
Price in other shops:
Nick & Norah's Infinite PlaylistSONY PICTURES HOME ENT; Release date: 2009-02-03; Published: 2009-02-01; DVD
Best price: $3.97
Price in other shops:
Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind (Widescreen Edition)Universal Studios; Release date: 2004-09-28; DVD
Best price: $5.66
Price in other shops:
Away We GoUni; Release date: 2009-09-29; DVD
Best price: $2.06
Price in other shops:
50/ 50Release date: 2012-01-24; Amazon Instant Video; Movie
Best price: $14.99