A Good Boy Meets Girl Story

Rating: 10/10 (6 February 2010)

I'm really going to generally avoid spoilers, but, unfortunately, the nature of this film makes it difficult to fully discuss without spoilers. The truth is that the storyline is visible five minutes in, so you shouldn't worry about them.
Romance movies can go awry easily. It's easy for them to be forced, fatalistic and silly to the point of self-parody (Which isn't a problem if you intend it, but it's often unintentional.) or depressing dirges about the futility of life and love reminiscent of a poem from a recently-single teenager. Even ignoring those issues, they usually depend heavily on the performances of the leads, so that if one of the actors isn't quite up to the task the film suffers mightily. "(500) Days of Summer" finds ways around all of the pitfalls of romances with a level of intelligence, silliness, and feeling that is truly inspired.
It's pretty much the standard American film love story. The narrator tells us this right away. (He does say "this is not a love story," but rather a "boy meets girl story.") However, even before that, the hilarious opening title cards tell us that this isn't going to be taken 100% seriously. We start out with our protagonist, Tom, in a depressed state about his recently-ended relationship and then, jumping through time throughout the relationship, we get entire arc of their relationship, from meeting to demise, and a little beyond. However, it's the way in which we move through the story, knowing the end and the beginning, that holds our attention. The device of showing us which day it is outlives its usefulness after about twenty minutes, since we're really just moving among three time frames, but the structure allows us to see the relationship's development piecemeal, so that some "mystery," so to speak, remains throughout. The ending is also both somewhat surprising and absolutely perfect.
The film's attitude of a mixture of deep emotion and pure silliness also helps it move along. When Tom is happy because he kissed Summer, we not only get him walking down the street happy, we get a full-on music video that even goes so far as to include a happy little cartoon bluebird. That scene also pays off wonderfully later when Tom finally realizes that the relationship is over and staggers into the dark streets, and our memory of that earlier instance gives it a powerful emotional punch.
As for the acting that is such a problem for so many romances, this film avoids that problem by (a) focusing on just one of the leads so that the other really doesn't have to do anything and (b) casting Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Gordon-Levitt has, without much fanfare, built an incredible body of work that shows him to be among the finest and most versatile actors alive, and in this film we see him trying on another new hat--being a vulnerable, insecure young man who thinks he lives in a fairy tale and then can't stand to see his sand castle get washed away. Zooey Deschanel is very pretty, but she's not a good actor. In this film, it really doesn't matter, because she has so little to do. There are a few scenes where her limitations are definitely a problem (Her final scene, her "apology" to Tom after he gets in the fight, and the first kiss scene come to mind.), but not enough to really get in the way of what is otherwise such an excellent film. The supporting performances are all fine but require little.
What little criticism I can make of the film is threefold. First, the calendar-like counting of the days really grew annoying once the time frames had been set--we knew where we were in the relationship anyway, so we didn't need that reference. Second, the narrator's presence, after introducing the story, was obtrusive and unnecessary. While we're seeing something unfold on the screen, he unnecessarily pops in to tell us what it means. This problem was most prevalent when he talked about Summer opening up her world to Tom. We could see that happening--the camera-work told us, the set told us, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt told us. We didn't need the big disembodied voice to chime in as well and it was distracting as a result. Third, Zooey Deschanel's weak performance, as mentioned above.
Overall, a truly excellent film that has enough humor to entertain people, a great ending, and excellent emotion.