Must Own DVDs: 500 Days of Summer

It's hard to find a good romantic comedy nowadays. They're so mass produced that one seems to come out every week, usually with Jennifer Aniston, that one dude from Grey's Anatomy, and even Jennifer Lopez (I know, I can't believe it either). The newest trend is the "independent" rom-com, which features quirky characters that are supposed to cute and unique, but are often much too odd to be relatable. But there's good news on the front-in the form of 500 Days of Summer, a romantic comedy/drama starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. More after the jump....

500 Days of Summer is not your typical romantic comedy. In fact, the film begins with a narrator declaring "this is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know up front this isn't a love story." The first scene takes places just after Tom (Gordon-Levitt) is dumped by Summer (Deschanel), immediately revealing that their relationship does not work out. Tom sulks in his apartment, throwing dishes at the wall in a catatonic state. Finally, his friends call on his sister to intervene. His friends offer their condolences, telling Tom he'll get over her. "I don't wanna get over her," he laments, "I wanna get her back." Finally, Tom's sister asks him to start from the beginning-and that's exactly what happens.

Tom is a greeting card writer in LA, and, as a brilliant narrated set-up tells us, a hopeless romantic of sorts. He loves the Smiths, The Graduate, and believes he won't be happy until the day he meets "the one". Enter Summer-a pretty, charming girl who works as an assistant to Tom's boss. Tom is stopped dead in his tracks when he first meets her, convinced she is the one. But there's a problem-Summer is almost the exact opposite in her views of love. After her parents divorced when she was a kid, Summer thinks of love as a fleeting thing, and something that can't last. 

Still, Summer and Tom begin to spend time together, and before they know it, they're physically involved. So are they a couple? Tom would like to think so, but Summer tells him "I'm not looking for anything serious...is that OK?" Tom tells her it's no big deal, but he finds himself falling more and more for Summer.

The story of the film is told in a very creative twist on the non-linear plot, jumping back and forth between peaks and lows in their relationship-at one point, Tom says he loves the way Summer licks her lips before she talks, only later to say "I hate when she licks her stupid lips before she talks!" It's here that the film shines and is set apart from all the other rom-com junk out there-it's real. It's relatable. Summer is charming and enigmatic, and Tom is a sucker for her charm (much like any guy would be for Zooey Deschanel...) But it's not all daisies and sunshine. Tom and Summer fight, and in some heartbreaking parallel scenes set in different times, start to drift apart.

Lots of Zooeys=Lots of cuteness

The film also uses incredibly inventive visual styles to add some heart and humor. In one particularly great scene, Tom leaves Summer's apartment after a great night to the tune of Hall & Oates' "You Make My Dreams", launching into a full choreographed sequence where people off the street join in-while it's not by any means a new technique, the way director Mark Webb (who has directed several music videos) portrays the scene nails that feeling we all get when something is going great with a member of the opposite sex.

The bottom line: through the use of clever storytelling, great performances, a believable script, and popping visuals, 500 Days of Summer provides a much-needed break from the formulaic modern romantic comedy.

Grade: A-