The Super Network

This is a film I had been really excited about when I first saw the trailer, as time went on I wasn’t as excited and it kind of flew off the radar. I’ve finally gotten around to seeing it, after all the praise I had heard about it and the negative things, for me it fell in the middle. Average film, I appreciated that it was different then the usual film of this type you might see. I am a huge Joseph Gordon Levitt fan, so I will watch him in anything. I was happy to see him in a role like this, and I enjoyed him in the film. Zooey Deschanel is a gorgeous woman, and she has this quirky way about her which worked for Summer. Basically this film is about Tom and Summer, they meet at the work place, become friends and Tom falls for Summer however Summer isn’t interested in a relationship and things get complicated as they would.

See now normally in a film, you would see the girl fall for the guy, and the guy isn’t interested in a relationship or he uses her (Bridget Jones Diary is a good example with Hugh Grant’s character). However (500) Days Of Summer decides to give a different look at things, and shows the girl not wanting something serious where as the guy does, he wants that relationship. It is rather easy to relate to the situation, how many of us have liked someone but they don’t want anything serious? Sure you go out like a couple, make out, and get hanky panky but it isn’t anything more then ‘fun’. That is what they have, but Tom sees it as more and Summer doesn’t. Simple as that, and as we find out Summer has her issues and her reasons. I felt that the character of Summer wasn’t as likeable as she should have been. I did find her to be irritating at times, and I found it a bit difficult to understand how Tom fell so hard for her (looks aside). Tom’s character is cute, and he was likeable for me, but I think that was due in part to the great performance from Joseph Gordon. There are some great scenes with Tom and his younger sister, which are actually quite touching and really well done.

Bits and pieces of this film worked for me while others didn’t, and overall it didn’t connect with me the way I thought it might. The script is rather good, it has some great scenes and some really great lines of dialogue. I felt though that Summer and Tom were not really fleshed out enough, and it would have been good to have gotten some more motivation behind their actions. I actually didn’t mind the structure of the film with it bouncing back and forth between their time together. The dance sequence comes out of nowhere and it fit the quirkiness of the film, and I didn’t mind that. The music was great, this film has a fantastic soundtrack which is really enjoyable. I am not sure I fully understand all the love this film gets, I felt it was some what cold at times and it can be a rather sad film. I did feel that Marc Webb did a good job as director, I mean they both did what they could with the roles and they did have their charms, more so him than her which I will get to in a moment.

As I said I appreciate that it was different but I would have liked it to have hit me more, which it didn’t. It kind of left me feeling rather cold, and not really being able to connect with the characters. They both really needed to be more likeable (Tom was but as the film progressed less so), especially Summer, but she comes off as someone you want to slap sideways at times and I am sure that factor made this less enjoyable. If she was more likeable, it might have hurt more but at least maybe we could have understood her a little better. I think perhaps maybe the mood wasn’t right when I watched this, and I am willing to give it another shot and see if I like it more on a second viewing. But for me this was average, with some laughs but mostly a lot of irritation and sadness.

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