(500) Days Of Summer

Directed by Marc Webb

Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber

Opens July 17, Various Theaters

 

Review by Lexi Feinberg

 

Love Sick: Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel prove L.A. can actually be romantic in "(500) Days of Summer."

 

In Marc Webb’s fantastic feature film debut “(500) Days of Summer,” breaking up is hard to do — for one of the people involved. “You should know up front, this is not a love story,” the narrator warns. The heartbroken lad is Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a greeting card writer who becomes smitten with Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a new employee who has recently moved to Los Angeles. They start dating and he falls in love; she, well, doesn’t.

 

The film jumps around in time, weaving Tom and Summer’s early, happy days (like turning IKEA into their own domestic playground) with the later, gloomy times (the lack of affection and abrupt spells of silence). Covering similar ground as Michel Gondry’s “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind,” Webb’s film is a refreshingly honest tale about the loss of love. Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber infuse enough playfulness to keep things from getting too somber — the dialogue is sharp and clever, never melodramatic, and catchy tunes from the Smiths and Black Lips ripple throughout.

 

The 95-minute film is expertly shot and paced, but it stands out mainly because of the superb acting from Gordon-Levitt. His intense, “love conquers all” optimism is countered perfectly by Deschanel’s casual, “love is a fantasy” distance; she is like the apple in Snow White, so shiny and hypnotic, but ultimately damaging to the system. Summer lets Tom know early on that she doesn’t want anything serious, but he loves her too much to believe that she actually means it.

 

“(500) Days of Summer” is a beautiful story that will resonate with both the hopeless romantics (yours truly) and the cold, hard cynics. Either one is likely to fall madly in love with this movie.