Zooey Deschanel

Lushly photographed by Roger Deakins, Andrew Dominik has directed a fine psychological Western meditation on criminal fame and legend. It features career-best performances from Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck, as the outlaw Jesse James and his intended assassin Robert Ford. Long, yes, but well worth the time. Where Terence Malick's films are often maddeningly slow and sometimes without much purpose ("New World"), Dominik's film is always watchable and even compelling.

500 days of summer is about love, but it is not a love story. It?s hard to describe what kind of movie it is, maybe it defies classification. Essentially it is a boy meets girl story, a story of a so called relationship. Beginning at the end, it?s told backwards and sideways. The 500 days that change one man?s life forever, make him question his lifelong beliefs and challenge his entire self. Half flash back, half dreams. The conventions of a film are shattered. It is self-aware, not giving to conventions of storytelling. Poignantly giving us a look into the mind and memories of a strange time in one young man?s life, and the women he loves, his world is tested and remade. Everything is challenged, his life and views, and also our conventions about what a love story is, and how it must be told; no set path, jumping from one time to another, from reality to imagination. Sometimes a dreamlike fantasy other times a poignant look at heart break and disillusionment. Hard to describe but easy to love, a movie that has unfortunately, fallen from sight. Joseph Gordon-Levitt deserves much praise for his quiet, heartfelt performance. Don?t let this one disappear into obscurity, it deserves to be seen and enjoyed.

I was really impressed with this movie. It surprised me in alot of ways. It drew my attention because it isn't your typical love story. Its much much more.

If you like fantasies, fairy tales and talking animal/monsters, you'll love this one. The scenery is gorgeous and the children do a very good job of acting.

Dont waste your time. I sure did. You will laugh at me for this but I tried to watch it THREE times and failed every time.I couldnt make myself do it. It is my top most hated film and I think someone should warn you before you make a mistake.

i laughed throughout this movie.... what does that tell ya?

This movie, kind of like Lars and the Real Girl, blends drama with moments of comedy, and the overall effect is confusing and ultimately disappointing. Ed Harris and Zooey Deschanel are good in their respective screwed-up father-daughter roles, but the story is kind of plodding. This could have been more of a truly searing drama, if they hadn't interjected Will Ferrell's role as the goofy, weirdo man-servant to Ed Harris, who dropped out of a Christian rock band because they 'were going too ska'...! The story is reminiscent of a sad F. Scott Fitzgerald story in many ways.

Don't read this if you haven't seen The Happening, and plan to. It is notable that a post 9-11 horror film like this doesn't get any flack for being irresponsible or premature. Sometime in the past couple of years, we entered a new era. It is safe to entertain ourselves again by being scared of attacks on urban areas. There are inspired moments in this film that invoke the tension that Shyamalan is aiming for. The opening is strong. The people jumping off the building is horrifying. But many of the other moments of death tip over into the comical. And the moments between deaths are pretty slack. Anytime the suicides in this film got too calculated, it became implausible for me. How can someone in a state of numb confusion operate complex machinery in order to do themselves in? This would have been a completely different movie if the victims were acting in alert desperation rather than the slow, robotic way it is played out in the film. The violent moments are horrifying, but I could never shake the sense that the people were already dead by the time their bodies go through their violent motions. The way crowds go completely still as the "event" overtakes them IS very haunting, but I would rather the film didn't take the victims so far away from consciousness. Another awkwardness in the film is the problem of how to show people killing themselves at enough of a remove from the main characters that we did not question why the main characters weren't overcome too. I eventually assumed that nothing was going to happen to them since the film wasn't giving me much of an indication of where the boundaries of the danger was. The music may tell me that they just had a close call, but I have no other way of knowing how close it was. I suppose that is part of the point, but it drained some of the tension for me instead of heightening it.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Yes, he was that young kid with the long hair in that great TV show, but he's grown up now and proven he can really act. Lyle (Levitt)finds his sociopathic self locked in juvenile psych detention because he nearly killed a classmate with a baseball bat. Don Cheadle (always amazingly good, no exception here) plays the counselor trying to get through to him and the rest of the therapy group. Deschanel is excellent as fellow patient, the troubled, quiet Tracy. The camera work is fairly annoying, but I suppose it was used to good purpose, as it creates a disorienting effect. Good acting all around by many unknown young actors. Don't expect major plot development, it kind of meanders along, but does come to an ultimate conclusion.

nice

Good movie

If you're looking for a typical western with lots of action and quick plot development, this movie will disappoint. Andrew Dominik's script and style is like Terrence Malick (The Thin Red Line, Days of Heaven, The New World), long, ponderous with lots of silences but stunning photography more than makes up for plodding plot. Veteran DP Roger Deakins mans the camera (first cinematographer in Oscar history to be nominated for two films in the same year). Based on an adaptation by the novel by Ron Hansen. Worth watching if you can stand the slow pace. Affleck

This was a movie I would have very much liked to love, but it is so very long and seems to lose its way in the middle. Rather than try to focus & sharpen the film, or try to keep audience's interest by interjecting some action or other distraction, it simply continues to pound away at the psychological drama - just doesn't pull it off. Good storyline, premise and acting, but overall it seems to be wasted potential.