Hurry. You don’t have 500 days to see 500 Days.

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The Trav & SHE movie of the week: (500) Days of Summer
“Julie and Julia” is playing at the Malco Cinema 12 and the Carmike 14 in Fort Smith, and the Malco in Van Buren. Link here for ticket info and show times.

SHE: Trav and I wanted to peep “(500) Days of Summer” for a bit. The film had limited U.S. release on July 17, 2009. At one point, we planned a road trip to Northwest Arkansas to watch it only to realize it had stopped playing in Fayetteville. Tears were shed. But then guess what? “(500) Days of Summer” started playing at the Fort Smith Malco. Pass the peas like they used to!

Trav: Attempting to watch this movie turned into a summer quest for us. We were dead set to take the "Trav and SHE Show" on the road for the viewing of this movie if we had to, especially when we watched the trailer and heard The Smiths playing in the background. A big Trav and SHE shoutout goes to the Fort Smith Malco for bringing this movie to the Fort.

SHE:  I prepared for the wondrous event of what I anticipated was going to be a fabulous indie “rom com” starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel by downloading the soundtrack. It is a delightful, eclectic mix of The Smiths, Regina Spektor, Carla Bruni, Simon & Garfunkel, Hall & Oates and other artists. It also reveals that “This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront … This is not a love story.” Um, not entirely true.  en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rom_com

Trav: My preparation didn’t include listening to the soundtrack, although after seeing the roster, maybe it should have. I was just thrilled to finally have the chance to view this movie without driving to a theater a couple of hours away. I’d heard so many great things about the flick. Friends that had seen it were telling me I had to watch it and everything I’d read about it had me wanting to buy a ticket.

SHE: Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a greeting card writer who believes he’ll never truly be happy until he meets “the one.” Zooey Deschanel plays Summer, the girl Tom falls in love with and who doesn’t share Tom’s absurd beliefs in love, fate or destiny. It’s not entirely a love story. It’s not entirely a break-up story. It is an interesting, comical, post-modern “relationship” story that takes place over a 500 day span. More appealing, is it is written and told from Tom’s point of view.

Trav: Seeing this from the male’s point of view was refreshing. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are a pleasure to watch. Tom’s sister, played magnificently by Chloe Martz, was my favorite character in the movie. She plays a mature-beyond-her-years, advice giving tween that is Tom’s voice of reason.

SHE: The story is told out of order, which typically I wouldn’t like. I not only have attention issues, my memory is, well, let’s just say I call all my boyfriends “Honey.” But, the director uses an ingenious framing device, animated title card clips, and periodic narration that add to the magic and charm. “(500) Days of Summer” is set in Los Angeles yet it’s not the glitzy, bright, fake SoCal. The director gives us the human Los Angeles, while the costume designer is spot on for both the Tom and Summer characters. The director takes some creative sidesteps: dream sequence parody, dance sequence, split screen sequence. I can handle most of it but some of it just hit a little too high on the cheese factor.

Trav: I loved how the story was told. I found it entertaining and interesting. We aren’t spoon-fed the story in a direct time-line like a typical romantic comedy. We don’t start at day 1 and go "from like to love." It’s more like we start at day 430 go from "love to like" to "wait, where are we again" all within the 500 days of Tom and Summer. There was a little bit of a cheese factor, but I really enjoyed everything the director did to tell the story.

SHE: I thoroughly enjoyed “(500) Days of Summer.” Was it as good as I was expecting? Probably not. But the movie is absolutely entertaining. I took my requisite 5 snacks in and came out with 3. I started munching every time I saw that cheese. Beyond the cheese, what made the film so enjoyable and charming are all of the little relatable moments. It’s a romantic comedy that both men and women can relate to because everyone has been through this type of relationship. Not to mention, “(500) Days of Summer” should be requisite viewing for most men as a lesson for when a woman tells you she’s not interested in anything more than a casual relationship.

Trav: While I do I like a good Indie flick every now and then, I’m probably the furthest thing from the typical hipster doofus you’d picture standing in the theater line. My usual stance with an Indie film is to wait for the DVD release and just add it to Netflix. The problem is, the indie flicks rarely make it to the top of my queue. I’m glad I we were able to add this to our summer viewing schedule because my friends were right. I did like this. I’m giving 500 Days a 4 out of 5. However, I have bad news for the Fort, it looks as if this could be a one week showing for 500 Days. Go watch it now before it’s gone. You only have a couple of days left to peep it.

THE NO PREVIEWS PREVIEW
I know we usually conclude the review with a review of the trailers as well, but when you watch an indie movie apparently the trailers are for indie films as well. We saw trailers for "Adam" and "Precious." Both of our reviews were a collective "meh" for them both.

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Trav can can be reached at [email protected]

SHE can be reached at [email protected]