(500) Days of Summer

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Not very often do I see a movie where the tagline on the poster adds to my appreciation of the film. When I saw (500) Days's "This is not a love story. This is a story about love." I thought yeah, right. And yet it is absolutely true.

Director Marc Webb has applied his cleverness in a way that is meaningful and not merely quirky. Some of what's in the movie such as the expectations/reality splitscreen are so obvious it's amazing we haven't seen it a million times already.

My biggest editing suggestion would have been to cut the unusual-girl sequence. It was good and smart and fun but unnecessary. Should have been saved for another movie.

But the manner in which we are thrown back and forth through time is both easy to follow and a puzzle to be solved and that is the film's most striking trait.

What I probably loved most about this film is that it was a concept I might have come up with executed in a way I might have tried. Sometimes that irritates me, but in this case, it was so well done, that I can only applaud.

And buy the soundtrack. Need to buy that soundtrack.

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Trailers watched:

This started off interesting enough --- could be a cliche but it was hard to be sure --- and then the trailer gave away every point that made the movie interesting. And then they gave it a name like "The Stepfather." Sigh.

The girl from Juno, the girl from Arrested Development, the other Wilson brother. I can't guess whether or not this movie will by any good, but it looks pretty darn entertaining.

This looks scary. Like Scorsese is taking us to Arkham Asylum. Awesome.

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Demetri Martin? Cool. Ang Lee? Unpredictable. But like Whip It!, however this turns out, it will be fun to watch. Not that we actually go to movies. Today was twice this year?

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So Aaron Eckhart and Jennifer Aniston got their star charisma going and I'm always happy to see Judy Greer, but can this be anything more than The Same Old Thing. Maybe. It looks to be told from the man's p-o-v, so who can say?