A wonderfully honest movie that is remarkably warm yet sad at the same time

Rating: 10/10 (28 July 2009)

This is a beautiful film that you simply MUST see if you've ever experienced heartbreak which I'm sure you have at one time or another. This movie is like an open diary to the hearts of anyone who is suffering from or has suffered from unrequited, burning, all consuming love.
The movie stars both Joseph Gordon Levitt, better known as the adorably hilarious teenager from 3rd Rock from the Sun as Tom, an actual honest to God sensitive handsome young man that most young ladies would snatch up in a heartbeat. He is literally everything you could ask for, handsome, intelligent, does relatively alright for himself and most and foremost he is a true believer in love. However, he meets and falls completely head over heels for Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a stunning brunette with gorgeous blue eyes with an irresistible quirkiness about her. However, this particular girl that Tom has completely fallen in love with is a love cynic, she unfortunately has been burned badly by past relationships(she never explains exactly how to Tom but we the audience can get a clear sense that she's been hurt very badly and this is how she comes to be so cynical about love) and is very reluctant to let Tom into her life. She later does bring down her walls and let him into her life, letting him stay over at her apartment, having hot shower sex with him, and inviting him into her private world that she normally hides from everyone else. Joseph truly deserves an Academy Award for literally placing us, the viewer right into his shoes......every height of ecstasy he feels when he interprets a kiss from Summer or a sweet and touching hand holding session as a declaration of love(sadly reading more into it than is actually there) to every agonizing low he feels when Summer leaves/breaks up with him. They go off and on again in an angst filled relationship for as the film is titled, 500 days.
Now this movie DOES NOT have your typical Hollywood ending where the boy meets the girl and despite going through trials and tribulations they end up happily ever after just like every other Disney movie. This movie is about A relationship, A great love of your life but not THE ONE TRUE love of your life that you end up being with. In real life, we will all meet and fall in love most likely with more than one person in our lifetime. Just because you do not end up married to your previous significant others for the rest of your life doesn't mean that the love you shared with those people wasn't real. The beauty of love isn't that it MIGHT last forever because sadly it doesn't always happen. The beauty of love is that it happens AT ALL. The beauty of Tom and Summer's relationship is measured in the childlike foolishness they engage in when they both shout out the word penis within range of public hearing(private joke between the two), the subtle but heartwarming way Summer knows that Tom is looking for validation from her so she takes her hand and holds his hand, how she went back to his apartment after he gets in a bar brawl with an a$$hole of a guy who was hitting on Summer( Tom and Summer are at a bar when this jerk starts hitting on Summer and even after seeing that she is with Tom he continues to harass her, so Tom being a stand up gentleman throws a good punch to his face, unfortunately this man is somewhat bigger than Tom and he proceeds to punch Tom back and beat him up quite badly) to show him that he DOES MEAN something to her. The love that Tom and Summer had was definitely real for BOTH of them, not just for Tom only as many other posters here have come away believing. Unfortunately, Tom and Summer weren't each others ULTIMATE love, and on an instinctive level Summer felt this but Tom did not, he wholeheartedly believed Summer was the one for him and you seriously couldn't blame the guy. At the end of the film, we find out that Summer does in fact get married.......but not to Tom. But this isn't actually a sad ending at all. The fact that Summer got married to ANYONE AT ALL is a miracle in itself, and she meets up with Tom again in the same spot in the park(she clearly did love him on some level as she remembered that Tom loved to sit in that particular spot in the park)specifically to find him and to give him a sense of resolution because she clearly does care for him. She tells Tom that their relationship taught her that she was wrong.....lasting love is real and she found it. No, it wasn't with Tom but it was thanks to Tom that she came to realize that kind of love can and does exist. Sensing that Tom is desperately yearning just for an answer, she gently reaches out with her hand to hold his.......to show him that he was right and that he wasn't wrong for loving her. At the very end of the film he meets another young woman named Autumn at an architect company who is applying for the same job he is. A quick conversation between the two reveals that she has many of the same interests that Tom has, and the film ends there hinting that perhaps Autumn is in fact Tom's ultimate love.
This is a true gem of a movie that any adult who has experienced both the joys and heartaches of a real relationship will completely empathize with. Indeed, you must go out and see it!