Gerald Cooperberg
01-27-2010, 11:24 PM
See what I did there? Eh?
Well, I finally caught up with this flick on DVD and I have to say that I found it to be kind of a groaner. I suppose in some ways I'm the target audience for this kind of product, what with references to The Smiths, Goethe, Bergman, etc. but as one character says in the movie (which is kind of an astute summary for the whole experience, actually), "Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate." The basic plot centers around a doomed romance between Tom (lone bright spot Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel, playing a vacuous cartoon version of herself), from the day he first sees her to the day he finally moves on. The saga unfolds in nonchronological order, a device which reminds me of something I read in a review of Memento: the true test of a gimmick movie is whether it would still work if it was told in order-- Memento did; this one doesn't. Strip away all the unnecessary convolutions and hipster veneer and this is a very conventional rom-com. I'm surprised that other reviews haven't mentioned the script's heavy cribbing from Woody Allen... from the neurotic relational troubles of hyper-intellectual denizens of the middle class to the rapturous tangents on architecture, film, and art to the love/hate relationship with a major American city... of course, what it lacks is Allen's sly dialogue and satirical insight. What I really missed is a genuinely smart character as the protagonist's muse. Deschanel's titular femme is seriously a blank slate, which makes Gordon Levitt's smittenness with her seem less like someone discovering true love and a whole lot more like an immature infatuation. Sigh. Save your evening and rent All the Real Girls if you want to see Zooey in a relationship film that feels authentic... or better yet, seek out Medicine for Melancholy if you want to see a stylishly directed independent movie from this year that features a smart, attractive couple in a Californian metropolis unsteadily carrying on a nascent romance.
Grade: Annoying.
-Coop
Well, I finally caught up with this flick on DVD and I have to say that I found it to be kind of a groaner. I suppose in some ways I'm the target audience for this kind of product, what with references to The Smiths, Goethe, Bergman, etc. but as one character says in the movie (which is kind of an astute summary for the whole experience, actually), "Just because she likes the same bizzaro crap you do doesn't mean she's your soul mate." The basic plot centers around a doomed romance between Tom (lone bright spot Joseph Gordon Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel, playing a vacuous cartoon version of herself), from the day he first sees her to the day he finally moves on. The saga unfolds in nonchronological order, a device which reminds me of something I read in a review of Memento: the true test of a gimmick movie is whether it would still work if it was told in order-- Memento did; this one doesn't. Strip away all the unnecessary convolutions and hipster veneer and this is a very conventional rom-com. I'm surprised that other reviews haven't mentioned the script's heavy cribbing from Woody Allen... from the neurotic relational troubles of hyper-intellectual denizens of the middle class to the rapturous tangents on architecture, film, and art to the love/hate relationship with a major American city... of course, what it lacks is Allen's sly dialogue and satirical insight. What I really missed is a genuinely smart character as the protagonist's muse. Deschanel's titular femme is seriously a blank slate, which makes Gordon Levitt's smittenness with her seem less like someone discovering true love and a whole lot more like an immature infatuation. Sigh. Save your evening and rent All the Real Girls if you want to see Zooey in a relationship film that feels authentic... or better yet, seek out Medicine for Melancholy if you want to see a stylishly directed independent movie from this year that features a smart, attractive couple in a Californian metropolis unsteadily carrying on a nascent romance.
Grade: Annoying.
-Coop