(500) Days of Summer

**** Stars

(500) Days of Summer is a wonderful experience, one so magical, so absolutely delightful, and so in-touch with human emotions, you’ll swear it’s like witnessing your own life. The tagline for this film is a phenomenal one: “This is not a love story. This is a story about love.” Oh how true this tagline is. Because what is the first thing you think about when someone tells you a film is “a love story?” Hmm, let’s see. Boy meets girl, boy falls in love with girl, boy tries to get girl, boy eventually gets girl, boy somehow loses girl, boy magically gets girl back, and boy and girl live happily ever after. Pretty standard stuff right? What makes (500) Days of Summer so original is how brilliantly it plays off that basic formula. This movie is a story ABOUT love.

Very quickly, for those who want the cliff notes on the plot, here you go: Joseph Gordon Levitt stars as the boy, Tom Hansen. Zooey Deschanel stars as the girl, Summer Finn. Tom falls in love with Summer, but Summer doesn’t fall in love with Tom. Their relationship together takes place over 500 days, from the first day they meet to the last day they ever see each other. Satisfied? Good. Let’s move on.

I say this because this film does not deserve some textbook synopsis for some textbook audience. No, what this film deserves is someone like you. Yes, I mean you, the one reading this review. Simply because you are a real person with real feelings. And I can promise you, with absolute certainty, that if you are willing to feel what you really feel throughout watching this film, then (500) Days of Summer will satisfy you in ways you could never imagine.

Relationships are never remembered in chronological order, but rather in moments. Good times or bad. Time can be a tricky thing. It’s often an illusion. A tool for organization, which anyone can safely say is the last term to describe a relationship. Perhaps this is why the movie chooses to ignore a straight forward narrative altogether. In a Memento like approach, (500) Days of Summer begins somewhere in the middle, and unfolds with the moments that are important to the story.

For example, the film begins with a heartbroken Tom being comforted by his friends after his relationship with Summer seems over. Determined to get her back, the story takes an offbeat turn and sweeps us into the memories of Tom and Summer’s past. Not in order, but on random days. Tom is an aspiring architect, who makes his living as a greeting card writer. When Summer is hired at the same company, Tom immediately falls for her. From there comes the bumpy and often surreal experiences of what we like to call love.

Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel have such strong chemistry in so many ways it’s as though they were born to play these characters. Levitt, easily one of the strongest male actors of his generation, gives a beautiful performance as a smart, yet helpless romantic. Surely deserving of an Oscar nomination, Levitt is wonderfully funny, instantly relatable, and downright intrinsic. Deschanel, whose mere presence is celestial, is pitch-perfect in the female lead. As the film progressed, the film critic inside me disappeared and I became lost in the story of Tom. This is a wonderful film for anyone to enjoy, but I think this is a perfect film for men. I can’t remember the last time I felt this connected to a character. I laughed, I cried, I feared, and I celebrated. Celebrated the 500 days of Tom and Summer’s relationship. Celebrated the 500 different feelings I felt as I watched it unfold. And now, I’m celebrating (500) Days of Summer as the best film so far this year.