Not perfect, but does a lot of things great

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2016)

I first saw this in my high school film class and knew very little about the movie other than remembering the trailers with Tom's character dancing in the musical scene so didn't think it was a movie for me.
So when my professor said we would be watching that movie I didn't think much of it. The movie ended up really surprising me with how much I enjoyed it and how well made it was.
Most consider the movie a romantic comedy and if you disagree I wont argue with that assessment either. So while many deem it a rom com, it is also an intelligent well movie that any cinema fan can appreciate.
The movie does a great job of flipping back and forth (ala Annie Hall) to different points of the relationship to illustrate the complexity and contrasting points of relationships.
An example of this is when Tom mentions how much he likes April's quirks like biting her lip, her birth mark etc when the relationship was going great. But then later in the movie after they were broken up he angrily says how much hates those exact same quirks in a manner that was funny and relatable in real life.
Another intriguing part of the movie is my opinion seems to change every time I watch the movie as to how much each character is at fault for how it ended. Both characters are flawed and at fault to an extent, but it's in such a manner it's never clear exactly how, why and who is truly to blame.
Relationships are incredibly complicated and I think the movie does a great job of portraying the complexity of relationships.
Other points:
The leads of JGL and Deschanel are great
The expectation vs reality scene is phenomenal
The movie can attempt to be too quirky and some of the humor just seems out of place.