“There’s no such
thing as love. It’s a fantasy.”
Day 1. Along came Summer.
The narrator is right – this is a story of boy meets girl
but it is on no level a love story.
Something happened to Summer Finn, a long time ago that made
her lose all faith in love and made it very difficult for her to bare her
emotions and allow herself to be vulnerable with someone. Slowly Tom breaks
down these barriers and exposes some of her feelings, her secrets, her fears.
And then as soon as the box is opened, it’s closed again as she feels him
falling for her.
Not wanting to put a label on their friendship-relationship, she ends it with
him over pancakes – something we see right at the beginning of the film so
they’re over before they’ve even begun and the latter half of the film shows
him trying to pick up the pieces of his broken heart and failed life as an
architect turned greetings card writer.
If this were in chronological order it would seem like the
perfect boy meets girl but the back and forth timey-wimey stuff gives the
audience a different view of their relationship as all the things that signal
their demise were shown before they had really begun as a couple.
The audience develops a connection to Summer, her
vulnerability and emotional fragility. Deschanel has a wonderful way with
facial expressions and they speak so much louder than words. This film would be
brilliant if only Gordon-Levitt created that same level of connection. He’s
pretty one-dimensional for all the time-travel he seems to be doing lately and
it’s not until Summer truly screws him over and he’s in the deepest pit of
depression that one finally has some form of connection to him. But then he
starts to pick himself back up again and that connection is lost.
Gordon-Levitt plays a good character though he is very
one-dimensional and seems to have a permanent stoned/drunk/confused expression,
while Deschanel is her usual quirky self and without her I don’t think this
film would have worked so well. Chloe Grace-Moretz is worryingly mature much
like she was in Kick-Ass though thankfully there were no machetes or
murders-most-brutal this time. She is Tom’s younger sister and acts as his
mentor getting him through the break-ups and make-ups with the help of school
football and vodka.
This is a good rainy-day film with friends but it’s nothing
special. It tries to break boundaries but ends up a bit confusing and lost –
especially with the just-scored-with-my-girl dance in the park. Totally wrong
that bit.
Day 500. Along came Autumn.
