Rating: 9.5/10

Director: Marc Webb
Writers: Scott Neustadter, Michael H. Weber
Cast: Zooey Deschanel, Joseph Gordon-Levitt
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

What does one say about a film for which so many words can be said? A film that is so deeply personal to the one writing the words? I will work outside the boxes and rules set forth by modern day film reviews and practice something I learned in college called "free writing." After all, (500) DAYS OF SUMMER thinks outside of the box as a film. Why can one not think outside of the box when writing about said film? Where do I begin then? I assume the best thing to do is just start at the beginning and work my way back.

In short, it's boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Girl doesn't fall in love back. Boy and girl break up. Boy finds himself. But it is so much more than that. Let us read between the lines, shall we?

The story begins with Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a would-be architect turned greeting card writer. Tom is a hopeless romantic without the hopeless. In fact, hope for love is all he has in his twentysomething life. And yet, it is this hope for love that Tom believes will change his life, making it better in all the ways he never could, or never did, by himself. Enter Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a girl that Tom sees immediately as the apple of his eye. But Summer is anything other than just the object of Tom's desire, and everyone else for that matter (she does average 18.4 double takes a day, after all); she is one that does not believe in love. To her, it's mere fantasy...chalked up to an overdramatic feeling of euphoria in order to make yourself feel better about, well, yourself.

But as life would have it, Tom and Summer's lives begin to intersect in a perpendicular way, no matter how parallel their views may be. For Tom, this happens on day (1), for Summer on day (93). Tom soon begins to play the game in his head that we all play when we first meet what could be that special someone (see "Please, Please, Please Let Me Get What I Want"). Falling for Summer quickly and unquietly, taking the idealism and running with it, putting this new found goddess on a pedestal. Finding love in all the wrong places from their mutual love for banana fish to their fancy for The Smiths and every small thing in between. But, as you may well know, love is not built only on the small things. It is the big things that matter, too...and these are the very things that Tom feels for Summer, yet she does not feel in return. And thus, as their relationship disintegrates for no good reason other than "life," Tom is pushed away from Summer, just as he was pulled 500 days prior.

From here, we are given a look back at Tom and Summer's year and a half through the urging of Tom's best friends (played hilariously, as two wouldbe sidekicks by Matthew Gray Gubler and Geoffrey Arend) and his wise, Yoda-like little sister (played with impeccable comedic timing by Chloe Moretz; SIDE NOTE: we could all use a relationship advice-wielding, no bullshit mini sibling like this). As Tom reflects back on he and Summer's rise and fall, he begins to realize what Summer may have known all along...what we all realize in the end of faded love - that he and Summer were never quite right for each other. While it might have been love, it wasn't true love. And, in the process, Tom realizes something else - that happiness, true unfailing happiness, can only be enhanced by another person...not derived from. It has to come from within first before it can truly be realized and appreciated in its reliance on another person. And thus Tom goes back out into the world, with a rekindled passion for what he loves to do, hopefully a little bit smarter and a little bit wiser when the next love comes along. It may be sooner, it may be later but at least one thing is sure...his 500 days with Summer was not for nothing. With relationships and coincidences/fate, they never are.

The film presents this grounded, realistic look at love in the only way it knows how - out of order, mixed up, and random...jumping around from day (1) to day (500) and back to somewhere in between. But the reason this works so well in (500) DAYS OF SUMMER is it taps into the very way that we as humans reflect on relationships. When you think back on a previous or current relationship, do you methodically calculate what happened in day (1) and then next in day (2)? Yeah, me neither. And that's where the film achieves something very special in its effective and unique methods of storytelling.

As for the characters telling the story, both Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel earn your emotions and your attention in their authentic portrayal, causing you to forget you are watching the king and queen of indie cinema. They leave you only with a boy named Tom and a girl named Summer, that are present as relatable characters in a film that rightfully and kindly proposes you identify with it. Let me tell you, it's a nice feeling to have a film whose characters allow us to meet them in the middle to identify with them, rather than making us work to identify with some unrealistic male/female stereotype. The two play their respective characters with so much heart, honesty, and genuine feeling that you begin to feel like they get you, just as a friend may when having a conversation about your shared experiences of love.

As Tom, Gordon-Levitt is not afraid to wear his heart on his sleeve, playing a more sensitive male figure outside the unrealistic box we are so often put in by guys with last names that rhyme with Smasmonashay and Smutcher. The boys in the audience should appreciate having Gordon-Levitt as an example of sensitivity and vulnerability, finally giving us an unsung hero of love in a romantic comedy from the male perspective. Summer, on the other hand, is what a modern society who thinks in terms of stereotypes and gender roles, would call a "domineering" woman. Such as displayed when she firmly declares her opinions on love, only to have the male realization that, holy shit, she may be a dude!  But that's okay...it's more than okay actually, because it feels real. Because, just as you probably know a lot of sensitive guys (hey, how's it going) you also may know a lot of strong women. The truth is, we are all sensitive and we are all strong in our own ways. We've all been Summer and we've all been Tom at different points in our lives. This is what makes the film accessible in a refreshing way. Girls, you may identify with Tom more. Boys, you with Summer. Or maybe vice versa. But does it matter who is Sid and who is Nancy, who's wrong or right? Not really, and that's what makes us human. Subsequently, that's what makes these characters, and this film, human.

Deschanel brings forth Summer equally as genuine as Gordon-Levitt, giving the character life with the subtlties of well-acted pauses and head nudges that draw us in to the believability of who she is. But isn't it the subtleties that draw us all to Deschanel in the first place? Her "can't quite put my finger on what it is about her" style of acting flourishes in this film, as does Gordon-Levitt in his own tiny devotions to making Tom feel just as genuine. In simpler terms, it doesn't feel like acting. And obviously that's the point, however, more often times than not you are unable to get fully immersed in a story because the "celebrity" of who's playing the parts takes you out of it. That doesn't happen in this film. In their respective parts, as well as together, it is apparent that the two brought a little, nay a lot, of themselves into the roles, making Tom and Summer feel as real as the "Tom" or "Summer" in your past or present.

It's also important to note that, as Summer, Deschanel has the daunting task of making us like her, and love her, while at the same time playing the bad guy that ends the relationship. Because this is Tom's story and we get it from his perspective, we are asked to see Summer how he sees her. When he's in love with her, we love her. We she breaks his heart, we follow him down that road too. As they say about love, the things that we are infatuated with in a person end up being the very things we end up despising about them. "Love Will Tear Us Apart" if you will. And we follow him on that roller coaster the whole way, feeling the emotions he feels. It doesn't help that we are all reminded of that painstaking moment in our life when we've been told "you're still my best friend" or the alternate, yet equally horrible, "I still want to be friends." While we've all heard this meaningless token on our way out of a relationship, a shitty parting gift if you will, it feels believable when Summer says it to Tom. She means it. And that's where the brilliance lies with Deschanel in this role. You realize she's not so much the bad guy after all and, as a very wise yet very mistreated blind date of Tom's tells him, she didn't really do anything that wrong in the end. But someone has to be the bad guy, even if their not a bad guy (or girl). Someone has to be the breaker of the hearts and someone the breakee. But hearts are not always broken for wrong intentions, but sometimes just honest ones. And it is that honesty that Deschanel bring to this role that makes it her best yet.

While the two do this in front of the camera in their roles, it is former music video director Marc Webb, in his first feature, that creates the sincerity from behind the camera. Every one of Webb's shots feels methodically planned and carefully cared for, as he truly realizes how they aid in telling the story in the most honest way possible. Yet Webb is not afraid to go past the line a little and push the boundaries with certain devices, just as he is hesitant to not cross it in ways other romantic comedies do so without concern. Such is the case with the brilliant "Reality/Expectations" scene, in which the audience is shown a split-screen viewpoint of Tom's hopes, and heartbreak, of rekindling his flame with Summer. Also equally fantastic is the morning after Tom and Summer's first night together. In one of the most audience-pleasing and enjoyable moments, Tom, happy as Han Solo, struts down the street welcomed by cheery passerby, only to find himself in a full musical number set to Hall & Oates. But again, while it could be seen as over the top, don't we go over the top in our heads while in love ? I know for a fact that I hear Hall & Oates diagetically after a wondrous night with a girl. In all seriousness, you do see the world with a little more technicolor when you're happy and things are going well. You're in love, everything in life looks amazing. Music sounds better. Food taste better. Colors are brighter and more vivid. You feel as if you want to break out in song and dance (and maybe even do in the privacy of your own home). Cartoon birds rest upon your finger, tweeting little birdy love songs. Quite the opposite occurs when you're out of love. Everything is depressing. Colors are drab. Every possible horrible song that reminds you of this person can, and does, come on the radio. You can't eat. Everywhere you look there is a token relating to a memory of your past together. The ghost of this person is all around you. That cartoon bird that once rested on your finger just took a big shit on your head. In other words, you are overdramatic about love in quite the opposite ways. Webb and company capture this idea perfectly throughout the film, making bold yet clever choices in the way they tell their story. From the hand picked music that feels like an iTunes playlist you already have, to the editing, to the clothing, to the real life set pieces of vintage downtown LA, to the cinematographic uses of blue and every unique device in between, it is all of these various separate elements done in the way they are that make (500) DAYS OF SUMMER such a cohesively enjoyable, heartfelt and sincere film.

These characters, their story, and the way it is presented would not exist without the immensely well-written script from Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber. I feel that saying the script is beautifully written says it all, because it truly is a beautiful film written with care, heart, honesty and a vulnerability. It goes for it in all the best ways, never going over-the-top so as to keep you connected to the story and its characters. The pair know these characters, as they are seemingly and convincingly influenced by their own past loves, as well as a lot of themselves thrown in for good measure. After all, the best way to get over someone is to turn them into literature, right? It is qualities such as this that make the film so identifiable in the first place. The use of sad British pop music like The Smiths and Joy Division as a reason why Tom grows up with the idealism he does. A misreading of THE GRADUATE as another. The surrounding cast of characters, including Tom's two best friends, that are written to feel like your own best friends. The narration, which here works not as a crutch like it does in most films, but a cause to give the story a sense of outside perspective. Not to mention the sheer fantastic "Memento meets love story" method of story telling, tapping right into the psychology of our memories and self-perspective on our own lives and past experiences. All qualities that make the story rise off the page, onto the screen and into our hearts. Cheesy line, I know. But hey, love is sometimes cheesy so this review can be a bit, too.

What is not cheesy is this film, a romantic comedy that is both romantic and comedic without falling into the usual conventions of the label, a label often seen as a mark of death for guys being dragged to the theater by their girlfriends who are there as a form of fairy tale escapism. (500) DAYS OF SUMMER looks past the fairy tale, allowing us to be led by a main character who gets his very ideas of love from these very misconceptions put out there by modern day art. It attempts, and succeeds, to break down the ideas set out by film, music, etc that you can only be happy if you find that one true person. And that you can only be happy with that one true person if everything is perfect. Truth is love is imperfect...it's happy, sad, messy, clean, perfect, imperfect, and everywhere in between. It is one way for one person and another way for the next. Love does not fit in a heart-shaped box, a square box, or any shaped box. This is what (500) DAYS OF SUMMER is so successful in showing us.  It's what makes it appealing for the guy in the audience that has been in love twice, as well as the girl who has never been in love, as well as the couple still in love, or perhaps the one that is in and out of love and everyone in between. It allows you to identify with it, no mater your past experience or even future experiences.

As the gruff, scratchy-voiced narrator tells us up front, "this is not a love story, it is a story about love." We could use more films out there that propose such honesty. Films that we can relate to, find solace, happiness, clarity, inspiration and understanding of our own lives in. Films that, like our favorite pop songs, give us a hope for tangible love. Films that earn the title of romantic comedy, that are humorous, while giving us perspective on our own romances of past and present. Films that, as a well-placed sign seen in Ikea within the film says, make not "fancy quality," but "true, everyday quality." Films like (500) DAYS OF SUMMER.

As the great British poet John Lennon once proposed, all you really need is love and there's "nothing you can say, but you can learn how to play the game." It is this critic's opinion that (500) DAYS OF SUMMER, as a wonderfully beautiful film, is here to help us learn how to play that crazy, unpredictable game of love.