(500) Days of Summer

From the desk of The Movie Snob

(500) Days of Summer (B+). I enjoyed this independent romantic dramedy starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Stop-Loss) and the ever-quirky Zooey Deschanel (Yes Man). If you've seen any trailers or read any reviews, you can't be too surprised by how the plot unfolds, but I'll err on the side of caution and put a spoiler alert.

SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT *** SPOILER ALERT

The story is not told in chronological order, so you learn really quite quickly that things are not going to work out between the ardent romantic Tom and the doesn't-believe-in-love Summer. The pleasure lies in watching how it doesn't work. The tale is told from Tom's point of view, and we know from the start that he is committed to the belief that happiness is attainable, but only if you find The One You Are Meant To Be With. When Summer takes a job at the greeting-card company Tom works for, it's easy to see why he decides she's The One. But she's honest with him: she's looking for something casual, nothing serious. He must proceed at his own risk, and he does. To me, the movie generally felt real--the first pangs of infatuation, the giddiness when the early going goes well, the pain of loss are all well handled by Gordon-Levitt. And you can't really hate Summer when things stop going well. She warned him. And she's just so darned cute.