(500) Days of Obsession

Last Friday afternoon I decided to treat myself to a movie, and headed to Leamle Playhouse 7 to watch "(500) Days of Summer." I enjoyed this movie so much that I smiled the whole drive home; I enjoyed it so much that I called my friend Alia to "discuss" the film (I can always count on Alia to have seen any movie I have, and long before me); I enjoyed it so much that I continued to ponder its qualities well into the weekend.

And why? For one, I loved the focus on downtown L.A. Like I said in the previous post, I love downtown, and for once a movie captured what I've known for years: downtown L.A. is beautiful. Two, the story is deceptively simple. At first it seems like the usual simpy love story with hipster stylings, but it's more than that. It is a story about obsessive infatuation. Something I am a familiar with, just ask the guy I had a crush on in junior high who's mother had to ask me to stop calling the house and hanging up. That's right, I have had moments of embarrasing stalkerish behavior, as I suspect many of us have, and it's through that specific lense that makes this story interesting. It's about that guy or girl that becomes the starring role of our fantasies, that person we are sure is the perfect match for us, if only he/she would let it happen. But the problem is these objects of affection, become just that, an object.

In "(500) Days of Summer," Tom(JGL) is obsessed with Summer (Zooey Deshenal), and the film illustrates this obsession by only revealing Summer as Tom sees her. Throughout the movie, Tom focuses on a handful of memories and refuses to look at the negative aspects of Summer. In fact, the audience is never given more than a two-dimmensional view of her. We don't know about her family, dreams, aspirations, and it is as if she is only a an extension of Tom's psyche. This is because she is only a fantasy to Tom. In one well-done scene we are given a split screen. One side shows Tom's expectation for the night, and the other shows his reality. But at some point fantasy must give in to reality, or else you are a creepy stalker who sleeps in piles of women's shoes. Just saying.