Endless Summer

Some critics have accused 500 Days Of Summer as being a little too precious, but I disagree. Having endured a score of graduate workshops in Texas where people wore peacoats and smoked pipes while writing poems about "tiny little lamb feet," it takes a lot for me to come down hard on this score. The movie captures the fun and exciting nature of love and the truly wretched fall-out when it comes to an end.

Summer, played by the truly lovely Zooey Daeshanel, brings our male protagonist to his metaphorical knees. She's the kind of girl who everyone loves because she's not that obtainable. As with many fantasies, the romantic impulse does not always thrive with what is there -- it's all about the potential. So this is a movie about the start of love and it does that quite well. But in nearly every relationship of any duration, there's a moment like when Bill Murray says "I've come to the end of myself" in Groundhog Day. The movie never gets to that point -- it's not that kind of story. Summer, alas, is a fleeting confection. But if we do get to the end of ourselves with someone and manage to find something worth keeping, then we will be, as the Beach Boys sang in my happy childhood pool memories, Endless summer, all year long.

Cocktail Hour
Drink suggestions for the dog days?

Benedictions and Maledictions
Happy Monday!