(500) Days of Summer

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM[/youtube]
Do you believe in love? That’s the question at the heart of this sweet romantic comedy. Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is a slogan writer at a greeting card company, though in his heart of hearts, he is an under-employed architect. Tom is a firm believer in love, true love, love at first sight, romantic love.

Enter Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel, a new assistant at Tom’s work. Summer does not believe in love. She believes in friendship, but thinks that love itself is a social construct, and nothing more.

Of course, Tom quickly falls in love with Summer, who while she doesn’t love Tom, is perfectly willing to go out with him on dates and be a girlfriend in all ways but love.

The film follows their 500 day relationship, from the day that Summer first starts at the company, through their period of dating. During this period, we see Summer open up emotionally, a bit, with Tom. We see him struggle with his love, with trying to break through to her and get her to love him as much as he loves her. And she’s just not there.

The film has an interesting twist, in that the 500 days are not shown chronologically, but rather, we get random glimpses of them having fun, having fights, getting together, breaking up, all of the things that make up a relationship. This has an interesting effect, because with chronological stories, there is that period of first blushing love, followed by some fights and rough spots, perhaps ending with a deeper love that is built from coming through those tough times while hanging on to the good times as well. With (500) Days of Summer, you see a sweet scene, then a fight that takes place a year later, then you’re back in the early days of the relationship. It’s a clever gimmick, and it mostly works.

We went to see the film at a special screening, and there were a few technical problems that were distracting. In addition, I was sitting right under the a/c, so I was freezing, and the popcorn was old and cold. None of these are problems with the film per se, but added together, they may have contributed to me not loving it. It was a sweet film, I was glad to see it. I’ll probably want to see it again when it’s on DVD. But I didn’t love it as much as the experts seem to, or the ‘everyman’ reviews I’ve read. I thought Tom and Summer had really great chemistry, I could see them together, I liked them both and wanted them to be happy. But there was that certain something that was missing for me.

(500) Days of Summer is in fairly limited release. If it comes to a theater near you, maybe go to a matinee. Otherwise, enjoy it on DVD.