The Film
As I've already covered in my Blu-ray review of Repo! - the track record of films with exclamation points in the title is firmly established. However, parentheses is an entirely different animal and there's very little evidence to fall back on. The recent horror sensation [REC] does come to mind, but even there we're dealing with brackets, not parentheses. With little in the way of punctuation-based guidance, I approached my review of (500) Days of Summer the old fashioned way.
First, I reminded myself that Joseph Gordon-Levitt is one of the most interesting and intelligent young actors working today. Second, I deferred to my crush on the adorable Zooey Deschanel and my willingness to watch anything she's in. Finally, I considered the fact that nine out of every ten film critics gushed endless love for the film and they can't all be wrong, can they? (Our own Jim Dooley was one of the non-gushing exceptions, but his review was still largely positive.)
Tom Hansen is a perfectly adequate greeting card writer living a perfectly adequate life. An admitted romantic, he muddles though his daily routine expectantly waiting to meet "The One." The One comes in the form of Summer Finn, Tom's cute and quirky but relationship-averse new co-worker. As our narrator tells us at the get-go, "this is not a love story."
But it so is.
And yet it isn't. Told out of sequence, the tale of Tom and Summer is at times charming, often funny and ultimately surprising. Although the climax of Tom and Summer's story is rather hard to swallow, (500) Days is more about love's journey than its destination. And this is definitely a journey worth taking.
The Picture
Fox brings (500) Days to Blu-ray sporting an AVC MPEG-4 transfer and the results are quite satisfying. Crisply detailed, this 1080p image boasts wonderfully natural skin tones and sufficiently deep blacks with excellent contrast. The film's color palette is somewhat understated, but the Enchanted-esque dance number does deliver a few eye-popping visuals. Overall, this Fox Blu-ray paints a thoroughly engaging picture.
The Sound
Like most romantic comedies, (500) Days is not exactly an audio powerhouse. Fox gives the film a 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack and, like Tom Hansen, it's perfectly adequate but hardly remarkable. The aforementioned musical number is the sonic highlight of the film, but aside from that sequence and the occasional background music, most of the film's audio lingers in the front three channels. This isn't surprising though and it hardly takes away from the film. Although you may find yourself wondering if your subwoofer is working - it is, it's just bored - dialogue is nicely anchored in the center and consistently intelligible throughout.
The Extras
Navigating through the elegant disc menus, the Extras category contains a healthy mix of goodies. Although you'll find a smattering of deleted scenes, an audio commentary and a solid making-of featurette, the real highlights here are two segments that have little to do with the film. First is a hilarious (albeit profanity-riddled) riff on Sid and Nancy, courtesy of Mean Magazine's "Cinemash" web series from the Zune Network. Deschanel of course plays Sid, and it's worth watching if only for the combination of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's facial hair with his ridiculous platinum blonde wig and black brassiere.
My other personal favorite here is a short film (or music video ) entitled Bank Dance, directed by (500) Days Director Marc Webb. I won't spoil what it's about, but if you have any interest in these two stars or you enjoy Zooey Deschanel's infectious singing voice, you'll definitely want to give this a spin. My only complaint is the lousy video quality; why wasn't this presented in high definition?
Final Thoughts
Although it isn't quite the perfect film so many made it out to be, (500) Days of Summer features two interesting characters in an engaging story told in a unique fashion. It's also proof positive that life and love rarely takes the course you expect they will. Fox's Blu-ray Disc proves to be a solid offering, thanks in part to an enjoyable assortment of off-beat extras.
Product Details
- Cast: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel
- Director: Marc Webb
- Audio Format/Languages: English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1, Spanish, French, Portuguese Dolby Digital 5.1
- Subtitles: English SDH, Portuguese, Spanish, Cantonese, Mandarin, Thai
- Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
- Number of discs: 2
- Rating: PG-13
- Studio: Fox
- Release Date: December 22, 2009
- Run Time: 95 minutes
- List Price: $39.99
- Extras:
- Audio commentary with Director Marc Webb and Joseph Gordon-Levitt
- Featurette: Not a Love Story
- Featurette: Summer at Sundance
- Audition Tapes
- Music Video/Short Film: Bank Dance
- Music Video: "Sweet Disposition" by the Temper Trap
- Deleted and Extended Scenes
- Mean's Cinemash: Sid & Nancy
- Digital Copy
