(500) Days of Summer. Film 4.

(500) Days of Summer written by Scott Neuaster et al and starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. I really like the name Zooey. It’s kinda kooky and sweet. Anyway I can’t remember what Zooey’s character’s name is because she looks kinda kooky with her black hair and denim blue eyes, which are really her best feature, although, I have to admit she has also got a peachy body, but, that apart, she’s no stunner, although she is definitely pretty, let’s face it, you don’t get to be a b- listed film star without being at least on the margins of drop dead, but I’d say, given a guess, that she’s an outlier, but then there is (or indeed are) her eyes (she has more than one, there not being many one eyed b-listed female leads since Long John Silver was seen in a porn moving swinging his cutlass, which wasn’t a cutlass, if you know what I mean) anyway, Zooey is not her name in the film, but it is the name of a book by J.D.Salinger, ‘Franny and Zooey’ if my mind serves me rightly, which takes me away from my main point is that Zooey’s character is called and it’s in the title of the film, written by Scott Neumaster and others whose names I wasn’t quick enough to write down and even quicker to forget, Zooey’s name in the film is, of course, Summer. There are, of course, not 500 day in Summer, although at a guess there are 500 days of rain in Scotland during Summer, but that is getting away from the main point, which is the film. Joseph Gordon Levitt works is in the kind of job you only get in movies. He makes stupid rhymes up for a card company. It’s the kind of office were they play goofball all day, and work in snatches of 20 second inspirations a week and the boss is a hard ass, but kinda ok kind of guy. Summer is the hardass boss that isn’t a hardass bosses’ new assistant. She appears, as suddenly as … Joseph Gordon Levitt confides in his pals, confides in his nine year old confidant junior girl friend that well Zooey/Summer might well be the one, in fact, is the one, if only he could tell her. Summer lasts for more than a day (except in Scotland) so she grows into being the one. The narrator does a bit of voice over and jumps about between day 1 and day 458, but we get the picture. She’s the one for him. He’s not the one for her. How can we reconcile these differences, quite easily by marrying them, but no, that would be too easy. Joseph Gordon Levitt needs to do a bit of moping in his large airy apartment and he quits his job because it’s too phoney (echoes of Salinger here). Zooey/Summer gets over the break up by marrying someone else that is the one. The viewer doesn’t see him, of course. We do see Joseph Gordon Levitt’s attempts at finding a new love. He’s set up with a stunner who is actually prettier than Zooey/Summer, but we aren’t meant to thing so because she is not the lead and not Zoeey/Summer, but it does give the male lead time to mope and drink Whiskey. (That’s Hollywood for moping) If it was Dalmuir it would be Eldorado and that would make him an arsehole, but that’s another story. So Joseph Gordon Levitt quits his job, drinks and does little sketches of the skyline in his airy spacious four bedroom typical slumming it lifestyle. There is a big what if lying about and it comes up and whacks him out: What if I gave up my dreams of Zooey/Summery and pursued my other dream of being an architect, after all I don’t need any money living in my modest spacious six bedrooms and dining room squalor. What if I just buckled down and became an architect. Before I do all that, of course, I’ll need to make sure that Zooey/Summery doesn’t want me back. Well, the narrator has already told us it didn’t happen, so how can we possibly engineer a happy ending out of all this squalor and upset. What if he was going for a prime job with a prime company and the girl sitting next to him –who eventually agrees to go for a coffee with him (and is far prettier than Zooey/Summery, but perhaps, to be fair her eyes don’t have the same magnetism) what if? That girl’s name is autumn. No wonder Joseph Gordon Levitt is smirking at the camera.