The moral of this story - Stop blaming your ex-girlfriend!

Rating: 7/10 (17 September 2010)

This movie is a black comedy where all the darkness has been sucked out and replaced with a creamy filling of Zooey Deschanel. It's a brutally heartbreaking tale told with whimsy and wry appreciation.
One of those stories where the guy acts like the girl and the girl acts like the guy, (500) Days of Summer is about all the time Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) found himself in love with Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). He's a failed architect who now makes a living writing greeting cards. She's cute and smart and quirky and seems like the perfect girl Tom has been waiting his whole life to love. The problem is Summer hasn't been waiting her whole life to love anyone, especially Tom. She tells Tom up front that she doesn't believe in love and isn't interested in anything serious. As the movie jumps back and forth among the end, beginning and middle of their relationship, we see what happens when one person thinks they've found their soulmate and the other just thinks they've found a buddy. When Summer tires of indulging Tom's romantic pretensions, he's crushed flatter than a piece of chewing gum run over by the bulls of Pamplona and it's not at all clear if the story's going to end with Tom getting over Summer, getting her back or killing himself.
If you've ever been in one of those "I love you more than you love me" relationships, you know how painful they cab be. Watching that sort of thing in this movie, however, is a very pleasant experience. Part of that is the delightful Miss Deschanel. Most of it comes from these filmmakers recognizing that the bad guy in this story isn't Summer, it's Tom. (500) Days of Summer isn't about a good guy who gets his heart stomped on by some unfeeling bitch. This is about a guy who still clings to immature fantasies about love and his life and what it finally takes for him to grow up. You could think of this film as a less contrived and more relaxed version of Forgetting Sarah Marshall where the humor comes from understanding how many of Tom's problems are his own doing.
Miss Deschanel is lovely as the somewhat opaque Summer. We never get to see inside her character, but that's kind of the point. Tom never really sees her either, just how the idea of her fits in with his fantasy of love. Joseph Gordon-Levitt also excels in a tougher role than you'd expect. He never really gets to play the sympathetic victim because Tom isn't that sympathetic. While it shows Summer being a bit emotionally insensitive, the story never wavers from Tom's own responsibility for his situation.
With some comic relief from Tom's friends and his little sister, a great dance number and a nice soundtrack, (500) Days of Summer is a sweet little confection of a film. It does end on a moral that doesn't fit the rest of the story and it is very lightweight, but if you're looking for something to help you realize that maybe that old girlfriend isn't actually to blame for your life falling apart, I believe you'll quite enjoy it.