I've decided that occasionally I am going to write about people, places, or things that I think are awesome. Currently that honor falls to the actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
I have always liked him from movies like 10 Things I Hate about You and Stop Loss, but he really blew me away in his new movie 500 Days of Summer. Be forewarned there are some spoilers ahead.
This movie is fantastic. There are parts that are funny and then there are parts that tear your heart out. JGL even gets to do a funny dance sequence - a total play on Enchanted. He also gets to reenact scenes from classic foreign films like The Seventh Seal in a very clever movie theater sequence.
But where he really blew me away, and where I feel he even desires award recognition, comes near the end of the movie. When the girl he loves - Summer - invites him to a party that turns out to be her engagement party, you can feel the shock emanating from him. Everyone in the audience was like "what a bitch! how could she not tell him that she was seeing someone else much less that it was that serious?" For him to find out that she has moved on because he sees her engagement ring, is just the height of cruelty.
Then comes their meeting after she is married. Summer comes over to JGL and tries to pretend like nothing has happened. I was very proud of JGL because he just lays it out there that she should have told him what was going on and then asks how a girl who never wanted to be married could possibly meet someone and get married less than a year after breaking up with him. Summer's answer made me hate this character forever. She says to him "One day I just knew. I knew what I was never sure of with you."
I literally felt like I had been punched in the gut. How could Summer be so mean to JGL? JGL's face said it all - he did not even need words for this acting. It was at this point that I realized he had truly become an amazing actor.
500 Days of Summer was a great movie. The acting is good and the story is clever. Any movie that can pull this much emotion from the audience (and I am not alone in this) deserves kudos. Bravo!
I just watched 10 Things this afternoon. :) I actually quote that movie he was in with the stealing or whatever when he says in the trailer, "I have the money! I have the power!" I say that a lot. It's kind of sad how often I do. I always liked him in 3rd Rock, too, even though I wasn't a huge fan of the show in general.
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