Comments on: (500) Days, and then what? http://www.joshdoody.com/2009/12/10/500-days-and-then-what/ Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:05:19 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 hourly 1 By: Josh http://www.joshdoody.com/2009/12/10/500-days-and-then-what/comment-page-1/#comment-69 Josh Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:05:19 +0000 http://www.joshdoody.com/?p=716#comment-69 Sean, I think you nailed it. I didn't want to go into the Sixth Sense angle too intensely in my write-up because I felt that part of the fun of that perspective was allowing each person to run the movie through his own unique filter. I think, in this case, asking the question, "Does she really even exist?" is a legit one. I think it would be a stretch to prove that she doesn't exist, but I think there's an easy case to be made that she doesn't exist as we see her. And perhaps there's a case to be made that Tom's own fear of commitment and/or failure caused him to view her in a specific way to make it easier on himself when the "inevitable" end of the relationship arrived (quotes used to imply a self-fulfilling prophesy). I think there could be a few thousand words written on this without too much effort, but I was determined to keep my synopsis in the sub-thousand-word category. Sean, I think you nailed it. I didn’t want to go into the Sixth Sense angle too intensely in my write-up because I felt that part of the fun of that perspective was allowing each person to run the movie through his own unique filter. I think, in this case, asking the question, “Does she really even exist?” is a legit one. I think it would be a stretch to prove that she doesn’t exist, but I think there’s an easy case to be made that she doesn’t exist as we see her. And perhaps there’s a case to be made that Tom’s own fear of commitment and/or failure caused him to view her in a specific way to make it easier on himself when the “inevitable” end of the relationship arrived (quotes used to imply a self-fulfilling prophesy).

I think there could be a few thousand words written on this without too much effort, but I was determined to keep my synopsis in the sub-thousand-word category.

]]> By: Sean Nyffeler http://www.joshdoody.com/2009/12/10/500-days-and-then-what/comment-page-1/#comment-68 Sean Nyffeler Fri, 11 Dec 2009 17:10:16 +0000 http://www.joshdoody.com/?p=716#comment-68 Your Sixth Sense bit has reopened the book on this film for me. Did you notice how, in its own not-so-subtly stylized way, the entire movie kind of felt like a commercial for Zooey Deschanel? There isn't a single shot where she isn't framed, lit, dressed, and made up perfectly. She's presented to the audience as a kind of unattainable object of desire, dangled in front of us for two hours, seemingly with the intent of making us "want" her despite our impregnable distance from her in the exact way that Tom does. So between the way she's shown to us in a filmic sense and the aura of mystery that surrounds her as a character, Summer is quite literally an apparition. She is as unknowable-yet-haunting as a ghost. We're not at all incented to like her as a person or sympathize with her dour romantic struggles (the way we are with Tom), only to desire her. I think your reading hinted at this, but when you really look at the bigger picture, it's not even a story "about" love. It's all about isolation and the manipulation of desire. No wonder you didn't walk out happy. Your Sixth Sense bit has reopened the book on this film for me. Did you notice how, in its own not-so-subtly stylized way, the entire movie kind of felt like a commercial for Zooey Deschanel? There isn’t a single shot where she isn’t framed, lit, dressed, and made up perfectly. She’s presented to the audience as a kind of unattainable object of desire, dangled in front of us for two hours, seemingly with the intent of making us “want” her despite our impregnable distance from her in the exact way that Tom does. So between the way she’s shown to us in a filmic sense and the aura of mystery that surrounds her as a character, Summer is quite literally an apparition. She is as unknowable-yet-haunting as a ghost. We’re not at all incented to like her as a person or sympathize with her dour romantic struggles (the way we are with Tom), only to desire her. I think your reading hinted at this, but when you really look at the bigger picture, it’s not even a story “about” love. It’s all about isolation and the manipulation of desire. No wonder you didn’t walk out happy.

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