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500 Days of Summer and Shutter Island
Jan. 15th, 2010 08:38 pmJust watched 500 Days of Summer and I am in love. For once, a romantic comedy that I like! Probably because it's not exactly a 'romantic' comedy. ;-)
A few spoilers follow:
**********
They took a lot of the romance cliches and played with them-- esp. the solemn, emo-type guy (I was a bit surprised that Zach Braff wasn't playing the Joseph Gordon-Levitt part. There were several times in the movie where Chris and I were saying, "Seriously, JD, is that you?") and the impulsive Manic Pixie Dream Girl, only instead of having her be juuust quirky enough to win him over and then switch to more traditional as soon as he wanted that, she actually said what she meant, stuck by it, and expected him to respect her words.
There was the date with the new girl where he spends the entire time whining about his last relationship, and instead of giving him any sympathy she flat-out says, "So let me get this straight. She didn't take advantage of you, and in fact told you at the start she wasn't looking for anything serious?"
Also, how much did I love what they did with the bar fight cliche? Starts with a guy pestering her, when she won't take the bait he moves on to "I can't believe this guy is your boyfriend!!" and when the 'boyfriend' punches him for it and gets soundly whomped in return, Summer doesn't give him any "ohhh, poor baby, you were so brave!" stuff. And then when he whines about that, and how "I just got beaten up for you!" she just gives him a look and says, "Ohhh, that was for my benefit, was it?" I just about cheered.
((this is the closest I have to a 500 Days icon at the moment. Which by the way, his character should've been in the movie more, but hey))
I just thought it was an interesting way to play it to have it told from his perspective, but not have him be the sympathetic protagonist, if that makes sense.
Oh. And I loved the "expectations"/"reality" split-screen.
Spoilers done!
************
Speaking of movies, I know Taking Woodstock is out and so that's next up on my list, partly because it sounds like a fun story and also because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is in it, albeit apparently briefly. I do want to see The Accidental Husband, but that one does seem to be a more traditional romantic comedy and therefore my desire to see a new JDM movie is warring with the knowledge that I'll probably spend 3/4 of the thing gritting my teeth.
Also, when Shutter Island comes out I am so asking mom and dad to babysit for a couple of hours, because if the movie is anything like the book that one'll be worth ticket price at the theater. I just stayed up until about 1:00 last night finishing the novel and Dennis Lehane is an evil evil brilliant man.
A few spoilers follow:
**********
They took a lot of the romance cliches and played with them-- esp. the solemn, emo-type guy (I was a bit surprised that Zach Braff wasn't playing the Joseph Gordon-Levitt part. There were several times in the movie where Chris and I were saying, "Seriously, JD, is that you?") and the impulsive Manic Pixie Dream Girl, only instead of having her be juuust quirky enough to win him over and then switch to more traditional as soon as he wanted that, she actually said what she meant, stuck by it, and expected him to respect her words.
There was the date with the new girl where he spends the entire time whining about his last relationship, and instead of giving him any sympathy she flat-out says, "So let me get this straight. She didn't take advantage of you, and in fact told you at the start she wasn't looking for anything serious?"
Also, how much did I love what they did with the bar fight cliche? Starts with a guy pestering her, when she won't take the bait he moves on to "I can't believe this guy is your boyfriend!!" and when the 'boyfriend' punches him for it and gets soundly whomped in return, Summer doesn't give him any "ohhh, poor baby, you were so brave!" stuff. And then when he whines about that, and how "I just got beaten up for you!" she just gives him a look and says, "Ohhh, that was for my benefit, was it?" I just about cheered.
((this is the closest I have to a 500 Days icon at the moment. Which by the way, his character should've been in the movie more, but hey))
I just thought it was an interesting way to play it to have it told from his perspective, but not have him be the sympathetic protagonist, if that makes sense.
Oh. And I loved the "expectations"/"reality" split-screen.
Spoilers done!
************
Speaking of movies, I know Taking Woodstock is out and so that's next up on my list, partly because it sounds like a fun story and also because Jeffrey Dean Morgan is in it, albeit apparently briefly. I do want to see The Accidental Husband, but that one does seem to be a more traditional romantic comedy and therefore my desire to see a new JDM movie is warring with the knowledge that I'll probably spend 3/4 of the thing gritting my teeth.
Also, when Shutter Island comes out I am so asking mom and dad to babysit for a couple of hours, because if the movie is anything like the book that one'll be worth ticket price at the theater. I just stayed up until about 1:00 last night finishing the novel and Dennis Lehane is an evil evil brilliant man.
