(500) Days of Summer

By Dan Hudak // hudakonhollywood.com

Hudak's Rating: A / worth the $10

Tom and Summer, the lovebirds of "(500) Days of Summer," do not end up together in the end. We know this early on, when the narrator tell us “this is not a love story” and proceeds to describe their vastly different viewpoints on love. Clearly “(500) Days” is not a traditional romantic comedy, but it is a wonderful tale of romance, love and relationships. Better, it's a great movie that’s honest, funny, and full of likeable characters and wildly original moments. It is also one of the best movies of the year.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a greeting card writer who’s a hopeless romantic, the type who believes in falling head-over-heels in love and living happily ever after with someone. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) works in Tom’s office and doesn’t believe in love. Their mutual attraction for one another, affection for The Smiths and drunken karaoke bring them together, and for a while everything is wonderful. Then things begin to fall apart.

Director Marc Webb freely jumps to different points (from day 488 to day 32, for example) of the 500-day relationship, allowing us to see the joyful beginning and painful ending at the same time. It also allows fun moments to be interspersed with pathos, including a risky dance sequence that absolutely works and an especially clever split screen “expectations vs. reality” scene that’s heartbreaking.

One of the smartest things about Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber’s script is that Summer is not a bad person. We adore her, actually, and Deschanel plays the role perfectly. Sure, Summer is a bit heartless, but she’s always honest with Tom, never cheats on him and never takes advantage of him. If she's guilty of anything it's that she knew what Tom wanted and allowed him to fall for her anyway. But by the same token she was having a great time with him, and with her cards on the table, doesn't she have the right to enjoy the relationship as well? Sure she does, and that's coming from a guy who’s had his heart broken.

Gordon-Levitt’s Tom is the heart of the movie, and because we like his idealized vision of love so much, it’s easy for us to overlook the fact that we know Summer is wrong for him. But that’s the tricky thing about love: It’s completely irrational, and rarely predictable. That the film recognizes this, and treats the topic with such creativity, warmth and honesty, makes it a movie that hopefully sets a new standard for what romantic comedies can be. Yes, it’s that good.

Did you know? In July 2001, screenwriter Scott Neustadter was dumped. Heartbroken and depressed, he quit his job and moved to London. Upon arrival he met someone new, someone who was perfect for him in every way. Six months later he was dumped again. This movie “is the story of those relationships, or at least how I remembered them afterwards,” Neustadter said. “Okay, fine. How I chose to remember them.”

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