I went into this film expecting to hate it. My friends didn't like it, I've read some bad reviews, and I'm not cowed by doe-eyed Zooey. I have a lot of contempt for mainstreamed indie films in general.
Let's start with what didn't work.
The first thing was the voiceover. This is always a dangerous move, and the voice just wasn't right. As not just a romantic comedy but an Indie Romantic Comedy, there was obviously supposed to be a lot of tongue-in-cheek treatment of traditional formats. The voiceover always threw me, always drew me out of the story.
The counter, on the other hand, was undoubtedly helpful. The chronology would've come out eventually, but it was nice to not have to fixate on it. Even so, the frame for it was, the aesthetic, was confused and overdesigned. I don't think it helped tie in the sub-plot of architecture, or even the greeting cards. I wish they'd used real shots from the view in the park; this is a film, not an design student's portfolio, and it should be treated accordingly.
Now, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's character was undoubtedly obnoxious. He was whining and discontent and foolish. Deschanel was comparatively far more tolerable. As much as I like to think I'm not won over by her, I end up liking her at least a little. I forget that I like her and her sister Emily's mannerism, and slightly deep voices. However, the idea of someone truly believing that there's no such thing as love, and that love is only a fantasy, an illusion, is a little bizarre. Someone who's been in relationships, who's lived their whole life without feeling love, is not modern or disillusioned, so much as they are a likely sociopath.
Indie music. Oh, indie music. Oh, alternative lifestyles. A girl with dark hair and bangs, a twee retro-throwback aesthetic, a sweet girl-next-door who attracts everyone around her? What a massive surprise that she loves the Smiths and quoted Belle & Sebastian in her senior yearbook. Oh wait, is it not 1995 anymore? It's hard to tell.
There's nothing wrong with still liking the Smiths. It's just that it's such a weak move, a far stretch. The whole idea of Summer being a bitch (a random and pointless plot development) and Tom changing his mind about office gossip because she likes one of the most mainstream, heard-of indie mainstays is just wholly unnecessary.
The same can be said for that Salinger reference. "We talked about Bananafish for 20 minutes! We are so compatible!" I don't even have words for that, except for the quote from Tom's unsettlingly aware younger sister: "Just because a girl like the same bizarro crap you do doesn't make her your girlfriend." If only it was genuinely "bizarro crap", and then you would have an inkling of sympathy for Tom. Being so deeply invested in the meaning of such obvious and surface-level "alternative media" is more than just a little sad.
In the end it just didn't really say anything. Tom loses his faith in love and finds it again. Summer abandons her unrealistic defiance of love and finds the perfect man for her; both rejecting an unrealistic idea of the nonexistence of love, and embracing an equally unrealistic idea that love is fated and there is one perfect match in this world, and if you wait they'll come to you.
No comments:
Post a Comment