Oh god.
I had to look up Christina Hendricks to see who she was. I haven’t seen her in anything. Why “oh god”?
Watch Mad Men. Then you shall understand.
the most unrealistic part to me is that free-spirited summer ends up getting engaged to someone else so quickly. it either means that the first relationship wasn’t very meaningful - which is depressing to JGL and the viewer who is connected to JGL, or that Summer’s character is just a step beyond standard irrationality which distracts. other than that i have no real gripes, even with the introduction of autumn.
Or the episode ‘Our Mrs Reynolds’ from Firefly.
About the movie, I thought it was great; but then again so are most movies with Zoe Deschanel (Ican sooo not belive she is Bones’ little sister!!).
I don’t do TV, and wouldn’t have Showtime even if I did. I do have the complete Firefly on DVD but I’ve never watched it. I’ll have to see if Mad Men (which I’ve heard only great things about) is on DVD.
Showtime?
Mad Men is on AMC. And yes, the first season is on DVD.
I don’t find that unrealistic at all. I don’t think Summer was ever in love with him and we see lots of evidence that she’s just humoring him most of the time. It’s also why the reveal of the engagement is so devastating to him since it underscores just how little she thought of their relationship.
The way I explain this is remember the scene where Tom wonders why she went to the wedding reception and danced with him even though she was already engaged? She says something to the effect that she went there because her fiancee wasn’t going to stop her from going. Contrast that to how mad she got at Tom for punching out that sleazeball guy in the bar. The reason she was so angry was she felt that Tom was acting posessive of her. Summer always hated being in relationships where’s she solely defined as being someone’s girlfriend, so when she met someone who wouldn’t have problems about hanging out or even flirting with other men, she found someone who was more interested in her happiness than his own. She knows how hard men like that are to find, so she jumped at the chance to be his wife.
In other words, she was looking for a doormat?
I can totally see the quick turnaround to engagement thing. I saw it happen to friends of mine, certainly. (Both men and women.) It’s like they work out all their shit with you so they can go off and be happy with someone else, the bastids.
I read it more as bipolar. Sudden, impetuous and radical life decisions made during manic upswings. She’ll be depressed again and screwing around or separated within a few months. I saw the whole character as bipolar.
I think it was more akin to when you hear people in open marriages say “the best thing about our relationship is there’s no jealousy” or “if you really love someone you’re not so possessive”. Summer well knows how unusual her views of relationships are (the scene where Tom’s friend tell her “you’re a dude” put it best), so when she finds someone who thinks like she’s so excited. I’m certainly not trying to defend Summer’s ideals; I wouldn’t have a girlfriend like that and the vast majority of society wouldn’t either. I’m just pointing out that her marriage wasn’t just a deus ex machina or oddball plot point, but that it fits with what we know about her character.
I just wanted to chime in to state that this was my favorite film of 2009. I definitely felt the parallels to Eternal Sunshine (which so happened to be my favorite film of 2004) even though if went in a different direction. What I really loved is that this film nailed the extremes between convincing yourself that someone is in love with you, and convincing yourself that someone is horrible just because things didn’t go your way. Both of these are factors that were a big part in the longest relationship I’ve ever been in (and my gf took on the same attitude that Summer did towards dating, yet still said yes when I officially asked her out primarily because she thought that’s what would make me happy). She also did the unbelievable transformation with her next guy the same way that Summer did, cuz “it just happened…I knew with him what I was never sure about with you”.
Oh, and the huge irony here is that Us by Regina Spektor was OUR official song…
Actually, that seemed totally realistic to me. People are crazy like that. It happened to me, it happened to the above-mentioned ex, and this is something I actually DID predict would happen with Summer (well, not her getting MARRIED, but her finding a snooky-kins boyfriend as soon as they broke up)
Not at all. I’m the same way. I’ve always felt that being in a relationship should NOT be about standing in the way of your partner from doing things they want to do. Because I let my gf’s go out without me, or because I don’t always want to know where they are, I don’t feel like a doormat. I feel like we both have our own lives and even though we can intertwine them, we don’t own each other, and I wouldn’t want it any other way for either of us. Many people get into relationships because they like the feeling of being owned, or having ownership. I think this is what JGL was after, which is the total opposite of what Summer was after. Communication is a big key in any relationship, and him hiding how he felt about the way things were (like in the car when he just smiled and said he was fine when they had the “what are we” discussion) was unfair to both of them, and he deserved what he got after that. I made the same mistake myself, except rather than lying to my ex, I lied to MYSELF. Bad move.
She wasn’t bipolar, he was. She was merely a hedonist.
I also found it disappointing. It was amiable and amusing enough but rarely has the love interest in a movie been so unlovable. There is nothing presented that makes Tom’s infatuation with her make sense at all.
But that isn’t why I posted. Only days ago I saw Joseph Gordon-Levitt in The Lookout a terrific little caper movie in which he is outstanding. I didn’t know the movie existed and neither does anyone that I have recommended it to. Well worth finding.
Well she had a lot of faults. Which he overlooked while falling in love with her. (Which I think is the point, as we humans overlook the faults in our prospective mates all the time.)
A very good movie which I actually saw in the theater. JGL’s performance in that movie was the reason I went to see 500 days, even though I usually avoid romance/relationship movies like the plague.
Who knew the Third Rock kid could act?
Funny this should bounce back to the front page. I just watched it tonight. I basically agree with the OP in all points, especially the trite precocious kid character. My wife thinks it was supposed to be more like an internal dialogue of the main character, but if so, it still fails.
I do like Zooey (and would hit it), but she’s no Kate Winslet, and this movie smacked of clever guy right out of college who wants to make a deep movie but isn’t deep. I was annoyed by the superficial cynicism being completely undone at the end by the meet cute at the end. That destroyed whatever they were trying to do. Either undo the romantic comedy or don’t, but don’t reinforce all the sentiments of those movies but make it about the relationship just before the I one that matters from the romantic comedy point of view. I figured a producer had their hand in that, worried that audiences would leave depressed and unfulfilled.
The scene with the marching band and cartoon bird and everything was funny but felt like it belonged in a different movie.
Also, FWIW, they matched the looks of the two leads to Dustin and Kate Ross really well, so I knew there was something familiar about them but didn’t realize what it was until they had them watching The Graduate. How meta!