Because the main (and essentially the only) characters are painfully good looking and well-dressed.
Why else should you go see it? Erm..... because Joseph Gordon-Levitt is totally ador--wait, no. Because Zooey Deschanel got to go to vintage clothing stores and pick her--hmmm. Well. Turns are there are no other reasons to go see this movie. Just because it doesn't have the obvious boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back plot line does not make it not cliche. Just because it jumps around out of chronological order doesn't make it original, and it actually just makes it worse. The characters are certainly pleasant, but that is pretty much their pervasive characteristics. JGL is loyal and a desperate love puppy. Zooey D is self assured and presumably, but hardly demonstrably, spunky. Other than that, they are just very, very attractive people. And other than that, there's not a whole lot going for it.
Who wouldn't want to watch these record-listening sexies for two hours straight?Here is a brief example of the shallowness of the film: I quickly noticed that every single outfit that Zooey Deschanel wears involves the color blue. A lot of the sets do too, at least her apartment, and the wardrobes of the backup dancers in what is definitely the most delightful scene in the movie (though it is delightful simply because Joseph Gordon-Levitt is hot, and he dances). I thought to my film-lovin' self, well let's see now. There didn't really seem to be any themes in this movie besides a nudge towards the whole fate versus coincidence thing, but this blue motif... why did they choose that? Maybe his whole obsession with Summer is a very blue, melancholy and uncertain time in his life, and (SPOILER AHEAD) when he meets Autumn at the end (yes. why I am even continuing?) she is wearing red, a color of boldness and definition. Well, when I peeped the movie on my favorite website, IMDB, I saw that this question was addressed in the movie trivia section. It reads, "The film's blue-centric color scheme was done TO BRING OUT ZOOEY DESCHANEL'S BLUE EYES." This made me want to kill myself almost as much as seeing a Nylon magazine with Kristen Stewart on the front, next to her own quote of, "Nobody should ever put what I say in a magaine." I'm digressing, but it seems our culture is regressing. My point is, anything you may mistake for character or concept in the movie is just hotties making you fall in love with them.
I will admit, I am a bit of a movie snob. I don't like chick flicks or rom coms that much, and bro comedies are pretty much just as bad (Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle, however, transcends this genre and is absolutely hilarious). So when people just cream their pants over little "indie gems" like this one, I want to cry with frustration.
First of all, if someone could explain to me in what capacity Fox Searchlight Pictures is "independent", then go right ahead. Now I'll be the first to admit that a movie does not have to be made by an independent studio to be good. In fact, I have seen a lot of really bad indie movies that probably didn't deserve to be funded at all. But there's something infuriating about the fact that an "independent subsidiary" of 20th Century Fox, part of News Corp., ultimately controlled by the terrifying Rupert Murdoch (is it crazy to think that there's a way he will now have red-flagged my blog and soon black-listed me if I post this to the vacuous and mysterious internet?) can pick up an average script and market it as independent, original, and creative, when really it is none of those things. In fact, it really just makes me feel tricked. A sheep with the wool pulled over my eyes, so to speak. It seems like someone with a lot of money paid for a lot of market studies and figured out exactly just what appeals to our generation, then channeled it to an unobjectionable flick, and stuck two beautiful yet slightly out of the mainstream actors in front of the camera.
Apparently, we are currently digging high waistlines, childhood, the color blue, the pixies, joy division, bangs, freehand drawings of architecture, and just that "out of the mainstream" vibe that their two charismatic stars embody. Corporations have figured out that we are willing to spend a lot of money on things that look cheap, "urban", or blue collar. Well, fuck me. I guess I'll buy it when it comes to clothing and art, but when you're asking me to take two hours out of my day and at least $13 out of my pocket, you better be giving me a little bit of substance to hold on to. I think the fact that so many people like this movie reflects on us pretty badly. I guess it's pointless for me to sit around futilely willing other people's movie taste to improve, but I just think we deserve better.
I guess we don't stand a chance, what with the MPAA and all. Wanna see a good movie? Watch "This Film Is Not Yet Rated". You should be able to find it for free online, because it's certainly not making any studio a lot of money. Did you know that only 13 people, 13 anonymous square-ass bitches decide what movies you get to see in theaters? Yup.
For the record, I did enjoy watching 500 Days of Summer, because Joseph Gordon-Levitt is a total babe (and a good actor too, if you want to see a real gem check out Brick or Mysterious Skin). But I also didn't pay to see it. So suck it, corporate Hollywood.
