(500) Days of Summer

Romantic comedies are a genre of film that I have neglected to take seriously for a long time. I find a lot of these films rely on trite sentimentality or raunchy sex jokes. (500) Days of Summer sets itself apart from the pack with a interesting story telling and strong characters. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom Hansen, an idealistic greeting card writer who believes there is such a thing as true love. He ends of falling for the free spirited summer (Zoey Deschanel) who is not interested in a relationship and eventually ends up dumping him for another guy.

The film jumps around to different points in his relationship with summer, from his first introduction, to first date, to after the break up. This narrative technique allows for an often times humorous contrast of the main characters feelings at different points of the relationship The film makes clear in its opening narrative that it is a story of boy meet girl, but definitely not a love story. This is certainly true, and the movie is not really a story of love between two people but an exploration of this guy's attempt to get over this girl.

While not laugh out loud funny, the movie has its share of amusing moments. The dialog is great, and parts of this film really ring true. The movie subverts many of the expectations of the romantic comedy genre, with an actually realistic but inspirational ending. If you have a friend who has recently been dumped, I think this is the movie for them. All in all this was a surprisingly entertaining and worthwhile film, and I really think it puts novice director Marc Webb on the map. I look forward to seeing what he does with the recently announced Spider-man reboot

Score: 5/5