The past few weeks have been hectic, stressful and emotionally overwhelming. Hectic because I go to uni in a few days and I've been trying to buy last minute bits and bobs. I may not be physically ready to go but I'm mentally ready for the big move because most of my friends have already left and they look like they're having such a good time from pictures. Stressful because I've been staying up late doing French grammar exercises (I'm soo rusty and I have a grammar test when I start uni-yikes!) and trying to read as much of my French reading list as possible. I've read 5/6 of the texts that I'll be doing in 'Michaelmas' so I'm not doing too shabby. Emotionally overwhelming because my twin sister set off for uni about two weeks ago, marking the first time that we've ever been properly separated. I cried. A lot. But I'm okay now! She's having a ball and I'm so happy for her. I'm just fed up of the waiting around that I'm doing and family members that keep asking me if I'm okay every two minutes! (I love you guys though).
So, last night, I decided to take a break from all the French to watch the highly praised '500 Days of Summer'. A lot of my friends have so much love for this film and it's one of 'those indie films' that you have to watch at some point in your life. I'm a huge fan of Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt and I was quite excited to watch it. The film follows Levitt as male protagonist Tom Hansen, who falls in love with 'the girl of his dreams', Summer Finn (Deschanel). As given in the title, the film uses a nonlinear narrative structure to show 500 days of their relationship, including their first meeting, the good and bad parts and the relationship's eventual demise.I'm now going to say something very controversial. Here it goes: I....didn't...really...like...it...in...parts. Shock, gasp, horror! There, I said it. Let me explain why. I'll admit that the film was very well done and the cast was very strong. The chemistry between Levitt and Deschanel was electric, Levitt was very convincing as the heartbroken young man, pulling at even my cold heartstrings and Deschanel too played her part well as the heartbreaker. The film was very funny in parts, thanks to the supporting cast that included the very talented Chloë Grace Moretz as Tom's younger sister who does not mince words.
What really irked me about the film was how Tom reacted to the breakup. From the start of the relationship, Summer was very clear that she was only after a casual thing, nothing serious. I personally felt that Tom's reaction to the breakup was very over the top and I was slightly on Summer's side as I didn't think that she led him on. Whilst watching, I wanted to shout, "Man up!" to Tom on numerous occassions as he was verging on pitiful levels to me. Also, Tom's supposed 'love' for Summer seemed mainly superficial. So, I couldn't understand how he was so deeply affected by the breakup.
However, despite my Tom bashing, Summer was in the wrong too at times though. I'd say when but I don't want to ruin the film too much.
Okay, I know I just committed a huge faux pas to some and I might be one of the few people on the planet that isn't absolutely besotted with this film. Maybe I'm bitter and a cold hearted bxtch like Jenny Beckman (you'll have to see the film to get this reference). Maybe I'm still not mature enough to understand what love really is. Maybe. The film's ending was very cute though and I smiled. Well, back to my mountain load of French work.
Rating 7/10
