"(500) Days of Summer" Review

In "(500) Days of Summer", Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Third Rock from the Sun, Angels in the Outfield) plays Tom Hansen, a young man who thinks that his life will never be complete until he finds the love of his life. Zooey Deschanel (Elf, Yes Man) plays Summer Finn, who believes something completely different. According to her, love is a waste of time. The film chronicles the 500 days that the two people know each other.

ACTING: One of the film's many highlights is Gordon-Levitt as the lead. He really gets into this character and plays it believably. Its one of my favorite male leading performances of the year. Deschanel is impressive as well. Even thought its nice to see her on screen every once and a while, I've never really found Deschanel to be a great actress. This movie makes me think differently. Summer is a very quirky and spacey role, and she plays it perfectly. The chemistry between these two actors is really the heart of this movie.

DIRECTING: The director of this project is Marc Webb, who is a newcomer to moviemaking. People have asked me if this movie is anything like a music video, and the answer is yes. Very much in fact. For example, my favorite scene in the movie is one that compares Tom's expectations against reality when he goes to a party for Summer. This is done through a slit-screen dividing the two. Its other scenes like this that makes 500 Days a unique movie. However, Webb does a good job of not letting his style get in the way of the story or characters. Overall, I enjoyed his direction very much.

STORY: 500 Days was written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber. Like "Pulp Fiction" and "Memento", this movie does not play out in chronological order. It jumps around to say day (1) all the way to day (290). You might think that this makes this movie complicated to follow, but on the contrary it only makes the movie better to watch. The characters and their thoughts and feelings are well explored. I also love when movies are take this storytelling format (there are times in the movie when you'll say "OH! So that's how that happened"). In addition there is some really clever dialogue and the movie is just very funny.

OTHER: Even though I've never heard of any of the bands, the soundtrack is good.

To sum up, I would recommend 500 Days to anyone looking for a very different kind of romantic comedy. This movie's tagline describes it well, "This is not a love story, this is a story about love".

FINAL RATING: 4/5