Love And The Frustrated Architect

Rating: 7/10 (1 September 2012)

Ah, office love. What could go wrong? A lot, it turns out, when one person's notion of a love to last a lifetime clashes with another's idea of the same situation as a like that will last a lunchtime.
Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a trained architect who has spent his last three-plus years awash in sentimentality, writing greeting cards as he pretends to be satisfied with his life. Enter Summer (Zooey Deschanel), a beautiful receptionist who takes an interest in him, one that blossoms when they discover a passion for some of the same things, like karaoke and theme music from the TV show "Knight Rider."
As much a launching pad for a thousand debates as a twisted take on romantic comedy conventions, "(500) Days Of Summer" raises a question it never quite gets around to answering about the nature of true love. Still, its ambling quality offers up much pleasure.
So does Deschanel, working her usual magic to less gentle affect than normal. It's impossible to dislike her, with her killer blues or the way her nose crinkles when she laughs. But you can't help feeling frustrated by her, a frustration that the film builds upon by presenting their relationship in a series of non-chronological episodes. Tom the frustrated architect is trying to make reality of his fantasy, but Summer isn't really going along. It's here that the film rubs against familiar romantic comedy conventions and carves out some unique emotional territory.
"I need to know you aren't going to wake up in the morning and feel differently," he tells her.
"I can't give you that," she replies. "No one can." Especially not her, though.
In addition to the two leads, the film is strengthened by the supporting cast, especially Tom's two buddies, loyal office wingman MacKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) and the more wistful, happily married Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler). Together they provide a hip Greek chorus to Tom's troubles.
Gordon-Levitt is a fine, charismatic center for the film. He's part Ahab and part Cary Grant here, getting into a bar fight one moment, the next trying to cover his embarrassment when Summer challenges him to yell the word "penis" in a public park as loud as he can. The more he reaches, the more ground he loses, but I think even female viewers will empathize with his concerns. It's funny that the actor himself has said he thinks his character doesn't merit the rooting interest; he may be the only person who thinks that after seeing the movie.
The issue here is not one of gender differences, but different takes on life. I go back to him as a frustrated architect, trying to make the rules he understands work in a situation that doesn't allow for them. She's not one to be tied down by anyone else's plans.
I realize I'm taking the same approach many others take in regard to this film, by focusing on the dramatic issues and ignoring the comedy. It's pretty funny in places, and well-observed, like when he agonizes over how she answers a simple question about how her weekend was. I love one scene early on when he meets her at a company function, and she tells him she had heard he wasn't showing up. "You asked?" he blurts out, beaming triumphantly.
The more elaborate comedy sequences don't always come off so well, especially when they become street dancing scenes or parodies of Swedish cinema. These are funny moments, but they don't connect to the main story and become distracting. Worst of all is a rather pat ending, though even that works well enough to let you out with a smile.
What really makes "(500) Days Of Summer" work is the bracing way director Marc Webb and writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber raise questions about the nature of love. They don't do as good a job of answering them, but do leave you thinking, success of a kind most rom-coms never attain.