by Audrey Levine

Created on: July 25, 2009

He wanders down the street toward his office, giddy in love, and breaking into a full-fledged dance number complete with backup dancers and an animated blue jay. As he steps into the elevator, his smile gets wider and the happiness is evident in his eyes when the elevator door closes...

And when it opens, more than 100 days later, his clothes are shabby, the smile is gone, and he looks as though he hasn't slept in days.

The transitions come that quickly in "(500) Days of Summer," a romantic comedy that has some of the elements of a stereotypical genre except the happily ever after - and, surprisingly, that is what makes it great.

Told in flashbacks and flash forwards, the film tells the story of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), a greeting card writer and wannabe architect who falls in love with Summer (Zooey Deschanel), his boss's secretary. The only problem is she doesn't believe in love. The film winds its way through the days, skipping ahead from Tom's courting of Summer to after they have broken up, back to the days when everything was perfect, and later when the relationship first began to go downhill.

It may sound confusing, but the transitions are seamless, and, with the days literally being counted onscreen, the audience is able to keep track of where it is in the timeline of the relationship.

From the moment Summer grabs Tom's hand as they run through an Ikea, falling onto a bed and noticing "a Chinese family in (their) bathroom," the audience roots for the two to end up together, even though director Marc Webb has already said from the first moment of the movie that that is not an option.

Gordon-Levitt infuses Tom with a sincerity and naivet as he tries to convince Summer that there is such a thing as love and she should give it a try, preferably with him. With wide eyes, he notices Summer, pursues her, tries to find their commonalities and prove that they should be together, only to be broken down when she begins to pull away from him somewhere around day 300.

Deschanel is charming as Summer, a carefree woman who hasn't quite found where she belongs, but doesn't go for the sappy romance that is so typical of the female lead in most romantic comedies. She is playful and fun loving, but the audience can tell that, while she may not believe in true love, it hurts her to leave Tom behind when she realizes she cannot stay with him.

In one split-screen moment somewhere around day 450, the audience finally sees Tom for the hopeless romantic

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>