As good as a ballad by The Smiths

Rating: Null/10 (7 August 2009)

I missed "(500) Days of Summer" earlier this year at Sundance (it was one of several 2nd choices for me), but thankfully I just got the chance to see it as it finally came out in my town.
Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) are a lot like Joel (Jim Carrey) and Clementine (Kate Winslet) from "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind", and the object of Tom's desire has a lot in common with the mother of modern complicated muses, Annie Hall (Diane Keaton in one of Woody Allen's masterpieces, if for some reason you haven't seen it yet). You can say, then, why bother seeing this? It's been done before...
Not exactly. Love and relationships are eternally confusing themes, and "(500) Days of Summer" manages to be fresh and witty enough to deserve your time. Reasons: Newcomer Marc Webb (who was a post-production assistant in 1996's documentary about grunge music "Hype!") shows promising talent behind the camera; the script, by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, is sharp, honest and hilarious; and, last but not least, the wonderful chemistry between two incredibly cute figures who can also act their asses off: the versatile Joseph Gordon-Levitt ("Mysterious Skin") and the indie muse Zooey Deschanel ("All the Real Girls"). It's impossible not to fall in love with one of them, or most likely with both of them, like I did. As good as a ballad by The Smiths (the soundtrack, by the way, is terrific), "(500) Days of Summer" not only delivers, but exceeds expectations. Go see it, by yourself and then with someone you love. 10/10.