The Gown – student newspaper at Queen's University Belfast.

REVIEW: (500) Days of Summer

What did you think of the last line? Have your say!

Deemed to be original and true to life, I found this film a massive cliché, bar a few scenes in the middle which kept me tuned in. There is nothing sadder than unrequited love, and yeah, it happens in real life and not so much in the cinema. However, I found so many aspects of the film extremely try-hard and there was such an effort to be “cool” being made the whole way through. Funny how they were both big Smiths fans, and not Britney fans (for want of a better example).

BY CATHERINE WYLIE

I didn’t find the film as original as some reviewers were making it out to be. Although it was more an anti-romantic comedy than a romantic comedy, it borrowed so many devices from its popular sister genre. Take for instance the scene in which he dances to work after having spent the night with her, the fact he has an all knowing little sister, and of course the obligatory karaoke scene – All stolen from the Romantic comedy genre.

One scene I did really like was when the screen was split in two and we could see his “expectations” and the “reality” of her house party. Also, maybe it’s just the girl in me, but I liked the fact that he wrote greeting card messages, and really liked the big scene near the end when he explodes into a rage at a meeting, and accuses all his colleagues of lying about love to the world. I felt that the filmmakers intended this scene to be key, in that it says a lot of what I think an anti-romantic comedy would want to say.

A lot of people criticized the last line of the film, deeming it to be a misjudgment on the writers’ part and too clichéd or  cringeworthy even. However, the majority of these critics liked the rest of the film and say that this line  ruins it for them. I would suggest they they are being a little hypocritical because I felt that the last line boosted my opinion of the film and  that it fitted in perfectly, plus I didn’t see it coming. Also, if they think the last line is clichéd, then maybe they should take a closer look at the film as a whole.

I wouldn’t advise you to run out and see this film immediately if you have yet to catch it. However, I would say that the last line is worth it, even for merely a bit of debate with friends!

Tags: film, QFT, Review

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 17th, 2009 at 1:13 pm and is filed under Arts + Entertainment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.