Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn’t. – by Nick van der Leek
Straight off the bat you should know that this is one of those 8/10 movies. A big hitter. But it’s also not a love story, and it’s not for girls, and there aren’t any big names in this. Girls might take sadistic pleasure in seeing that men actually experience the full spectrum of human misery, but this is really about guys getting some perspective on all that pain and suffering. The good news is it isn’t a downer.
‘Summer’ has a great sense of humor, it’s light, and kind’ve jumpy, and it takes on some serious issues without being melodramatic. Like any summer romance worth writing home about, this flick is fun, it’s serious, it’s touching. But it’s not a summer holiday fling. In other words, guys, this is not a love story for guys, because it’s not a love story.
I’m a guy [really] and I have to say this flick really hit the mark. I’m sure all of us [guys] have had this experience, where girls have really [really] liked us, we’ve had fantastic times [even including sex] but at the end of it all, she just wasn’t that into you. Or she was more into someone else. Or to be even more accurate, you were more into her, as in loved her, and she was still getting her shit together, and your relationship basically did that, for her.
Tom: It's official. I'm in love with Summer.
[while Montage of Summer plays]
Tom: I love her smile. I love her hair. I love her knees. I love how she licks her lips before she talks. I love her heart-shaped birthmark on her neck. I love it when she sleeps.
That [above] should clarify that Summer [Zooey Deschanel] is a person, but I don’t think it is entirely incidental that her name is also a season, and what do seasons do? They have a profound impact on the world, on how the world feels, and then they change, and the world, and perhaps we ourselves, become something else. It’s beautiful, it’s painful, but that’s life.
Deschanel isn’t a cardboard cutout of attractiveness. In the New York Times, A.O Scott describes Ms. Deschanel as excelling ‘at playing this kind of cute, quasi-bohemian crush object.’ But she isn’t Megan Fox or Kim Kardashian, and if she was, this flick would probably have scored a 6 at best, or bombed at worst. Neither is Deschanel the clichéd Julia Roberts/Sandra Bullock pastiche. So what is she?
Deschanel is enigmatic, and mysterious, and sensual, and frustratingly enchanting. She does grow on you. Her pursuer, the character Tom [Joseph Gordon-Levitt]is someone with those sort’ve halfhearted good looks, that sort of goofy physique which girls can’t place as hunky or geeky. Tom probably makes the critical error in his relationship with her, which for rhyme or reason, he consents at some point to becoming and being her friend. Once a girl puts you in the ‘friend’ label you’ll never get out of it. Sorry. But sometimes the garden path has signs that seem to indicate love and romance when really the path is taking you into the woodlands known as ‘Friendship’. Yes, ouch.
A.O Scott of the New York Times, someone whose reviews I generally find hard to swallow, in this instance cracks it on excellent characterization and casting in ‘Summer’:
Some of the credibility that Mr. Webb’s movie establishes right away comes from its unassuming and appealing stars, Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. With his crooked smile, reedy physique and improbably deep voice, Mr. Gordon-Levitt camouflages his magnetism with diffidence, much as Ms. Deschanel uses her slightly spacey, vaguely melancholy affect to magnify the charm she is pretending to disguise. Their characters, Tom Hansen and Summer Finn, seem so ideally matched, such a cozily compatible semi-hipster couple, that it’s a bit of a shock when things don’t work out between them.
The magic of this flick lies in the sheer credibility that Scott has zoomed in on here. But it’s not just the authenticity of the two protagonists that works, the story has that ring of truth. Guys you can feel in your gut what this movie is trying to say. Some may become impatient with the many scenes which are essentially anecdotes of the relationship, but be patient. Some scenes are revisited in a nod to Groundhog Day in the sense that when you return to them either they change or you change, but change ultimately must occur.
Rachel Hansen: Tom, I know you think she was the one, but I don't. Next time you look back, I think you should look again.
One of my favourite characters in this flick is Rachel, a young Macauley Culkin-like confidant [and Tom's sister] who dispenses advice to Tom. What’s hilarious is Rachel [Chloë Grace Moretz] is about 12 years old, and seems to have more experience than Tom. This works far better than if Tom’s confidant were grandma, or his father, or even a best male friend. And I know in my experience, my sister, 7 years younger than myself, often provided similar catharsis during those lovelorn crises.
Tom: She took a giant shit on my face. Literally.
Alison: Literally?
Tom: Well, no, not literally. That's disgusting.
‘Summer’ is a valuable flick because it does the job of showing that sometimes pain and misery is justified, but bitterness isn’t. It makes a strong case for what is perhaps the most desirable trait we hope to find in our partners, and that they hope to love in us, whether it lasts or not. Honesty. Because if you love, or even like, with honesty, then that is an authentic experience not only worth having, but worth remembering fondly.
Running Time: 95 min
Rating: PG 13 for sexual material and language
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