According to Colwell

This film is so intent on being an unconventional love story that the narrator (whom we hear infrequently) tells us at the movie’s opening that while “it is a story about love, it is not a love story.” And it’s actually true. It is more of a story about love than it is a love story. The Summer of the title is played by Zooey Deschanel, who has the offbeat, independent, and cheerful woman role down pat. Her big blue eyes do not seem to be concealing great depths. In fact it is her suitor, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), who is more serious, mature, and reflective. And he is also more romantic and has it in his head that Summer is the one and only woman for him. Where does a romantic work? Writing greeting cards, of course, after putting his architectural aspirations on indefinite hold. Summer tells Tom early on in the 500 days that she is not looking for anything serious. For her, the L-word is “like”.

The movie jumps around in time through those 500 days, starting on day 488 before eventually jumping back through a breakup in the mid-200’s to day 1. It seemed a bit gimmicky at first, but fairly early it became a natural pattern of the movie and provided an added wrinkle to the storytelling. Gordon-Levitt has the more sympathetic role and wrings everything out of it. While Deschanel has a certain charm and appeal, her insistence on not being serious (her favorite Beatle is Ringo!) and floating above it all wears thin. We have a clear idea of what Tom wants in life, while Summer’s idea of a good time is shouting “penis” in a park for its shock value.

So it’s actually a bit satisfying that a fair amount of the movie is spent with Tom and Summer on a break. There are laughs sprinkled throughout, and romantic moments, but it is not a movie which fits the description of romantic comedy. It has more realism and heft. Neither riotous nor weepy nor even particularly heartwarming, it is nevertheless fun, entertaining, and original.

On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 mission that placed two people on the surface of the Moon for the first time, we saw Moon, a refreshingly thoughtful science fiction film. My wife, who swears off science fiction categorically, saw it accidentally (thinking it was a different movie altogether, and I confess I did not go out of my way to clarify things before we saw it) and actually liked it. Set in the not-too-distant future, Moon takes place at a nearly automated mining facility on the far side of the Moon. The station is manned by a single person, Sam Bell (Sam Rockwell), and a computer with a number of robotic elements named GERTY (voiced by Kevin Spacey).

At the start of the movie, Sam is two weeks away from the end of a three-year deployment to the mining base, and is anxious to get home to his wife and young daughter. But he is having trouble concentrating and is distracted by hallucinations. Then, an accident on the surface of the Moon while servicing one of the robotic mining machines, threatens his return. I hesitate to say much more about the plot, because it is not possible to do so without revealing critical elements that are best if discovered while watching the movie. Instead I will say that it is a movie about identity and sacrifice, and features a fine performance from Rockwell who plays Sam with a broad range of subtle inflections.

There are a number of nice details in the movie. GERTY’s display shows bright yellow emoticons (smiley face, frown, puzzled, and even a tear) instead of the ominous red lens of Hal. The base looks grungy and lived-in, appropriate for a mining base. The lunar surface is starkly realistic. The Moon’s weak gravity is ignored, however, as an inconvenience to film-making, so for the most part Sam bounds around in obvious 1-g conditions. Big deal. That is not what the movie is about. Nor is the feasibility of free energy in the form of Helium-3 implanted in the lunar soil an issue worth arguing about. Moon, like most good science fiction, makes use of the freedoms afforded it by science fiction to explore the human condition. It is the second movie directed by Duncan Jones, who also wrote the story with Nathan Parker. It shows a professional and polished touch.

I just realized that I neglected to post a review of this movie, that I saw last month. Odd, since I have a distinct memory of writing it, but perhaps I was just thinking of the things I would put in the review and never actually wrote it. It is the tale of a young couple (Burt and Verona), played by John Krasinski and Maya Rudolph, who go on a road trip in search of a place to settle down and raise the child on the way. Their journeys take them to a menagerie of dysfunctional friends, family, and former acquaintances. The characters of Burt and Verona are understated, certainly in comparison to some of their friends (Maggie Gyllenhaal as a New Age professor who shuns strollers because they involve pushing her children away from her). The movie has many laughs, but I felt I knew some of the supporting characters better than Burt and Verona.

Ryan Reynolds may have finally established himself as a rom-com leading man with his portrayal of Andrew, the overworked assistant to Sandra Bullock’s joyless Margaret Tate. Bullock herself has long-since mastered the role of the powerful woman who is unaware of or uninterested in her own sex appeal. The pairing of Reynolds and Bullock in The Proposal has both chemistry and laughs.

The story is not unfamiliar territory. Tate, a hotshot editor at a New York publishing house, happens to be Canadian and somewhat careless when it comes to dealing with INS. This earns her a one-way ticket home until she comes up with the idea of forcing Andrew, an American, to marry her. Reynolds’ expression when Margaret springs her plan on him is a masterful example of understated comic acting. Andrew’s motivation is, ostensibly, to keep Margaret from destroying his aspirations of becoming an editor himself (though if he refused and she was deported, her influence might not go so far). He quickly realizes that, for once, he has the upper hand, and goes along with the idea. What follows is a somewhat predictable but always enjoyable crash course for Andrew and Margaret on life as a couple in the confines of Andrew’s family estate in - where else - Alaska.

The supporting cast is also memorable, with Betty White playing Andrew’s irreverent grandmother and Oscar Nunez (Oscar, from TV’s The Office) playing Ramone, a hilarious jack-of-all trades in the small Alaskan town whose talents are not limited to erotic dancing. Denis O’Hare plays the INS agent who has guessed Margaret’s ruse, and he brings some extra zing to a role which could have been the stereotypical humorless bureaucratic bad guy. (Although the speed and efficiency of the INS is wildly overstated for the sake of the plot.)

Everyone knows where this movie is heading when one walks in the theater (to the extent that my main disappointment was that a great line from the trailer for the movie is replaced by a less-funny take in the final cut), but that doesn’t make the ride any less fun.