One thing Tom does that Rob Gordon would never do, even in fantasy, is burst into a song-and-dance number (complete with cartoon bluebird) to the Hall & Oates classic “You Make My Dreams”. We will later find out that Tom’s tween-age sister is the voice of reason when she warns him that “Just because some cute girl likes the same bizarro crap you do does not make her your soulmate.” But not until we go through a whole lot more music. Tom first speaks to Summer while listening to what could be called the Sad Bastard Anthem, “There Is a Light That Never Goes Out” by the Smiths - a song she professes to love and thereby seals their what Tom adamantly believes is their fated meeting. He too blames his romantic ineptitude on having grown up on “sad British pop music” (or “sad bastard music” in High Fidelity) and seems to have a closet full of little more than Clash, Jam and Joy Division t-shirts. His slightly rumpled, sweater-vest-and-Puma-wearing Tom recalls a sweeter, less misogynistic version of Rob Gordon in High Fidelity. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, for his part, is no slouch in the charming department. Even at the karaoke bar, where even the best of us are reduced to Whitesnake’s greatest hits, Summer keeps her hipster cred intact with her winsome and incredibly charming take on Nancy Sinatra’s “Sugar Town”. The kind of girl who can boost area sales of Belle and Sebastian’s The Boy with the Arab Strap CD single-handedly by quoting lyrics from it in her high school yearbook. Girls like Summer/Zooey are worshipped by guys like Tom/Ben - intelligent, sensitive, slightly nerdy types possessed of depressive tendencies and more than a working knowledge of the Jesus and Mary Chain’s back catalogue. Summer is portrayed as the ultimate muse, and Deschanel, well… she just married Death Cab for Cutie’s Ben Gibbard. Ward, and their debut CD, Volume One was released to critical acclaim in 2007. Her main musical vehicle is the duo She & Him, “Him” being indie troubadour M. It seems no accident that Summer herself is played by an actor who is also a singer and songwriter, Zooey Deschanel. The music isn’t just confined to the soundtrack - it colors the story to the point where it almost becomes another character in the script. The story of young lovers Summer and Tom marks the feature-length directorial debut of music video director Marc Webb, and with his use of pop music in the film, his pedigree shows. While the summer has now passed us by, many theatres in my town are still playing the hit rom-com (500) Days of Summer.
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