We’re told from the get-go that 500 Days of Summer is not your average romantic comedy. It isn’t. Filled with sideward glances, awkward moments and those little things you do to attract the one you love, it is pensive, cruel but ultimately glorious. Bewitching and thoroughly natural, without ever being mundane, one of the many things that sets Days Of Summer apart from the never-ending excrement that flows from Tinseltown’s bowels (ike a bad dose of the cinematic runs is Joseph Gordon Levitt. As Tom, our lovelorn protagonist, he works for the same reasons most rom-com leads don’t. He’s not a natural comedian, marking his funny moments as all the more believable and precious, while his more dramatic moments pack more oomph as more than filler between fart gags and vibrating panties.
The movie’s (non-chronological) timeline, baffles us in the same way Summer [Deschanel] baffles Tom. Even by the film’s close she remains an enigma to us. And that’s the point. Having seen the movie from Tom’s point of view we are as perplexed as he when Summer doesn’t comply with it. Love can sometimes be for the now and not the forever, and it’s the fragmented recollections of that time that this movie uses as its premise. With its cinematic flourishes and tender heart 500 Days of Summer is one of the genre’s greatest achievements within our generation.
