A surprisingly realistic love story.

Rating: 10/10 (26 May 2010)

this is probably one of the most realistic love stories i have ever seen. first off, you can't help but love zooey deschanel in anything she does. especially in this movie, where she plays summer finn, a realistic woman who doesn't believe in love, who thinks believing in love is like believing in santa claus. and then there's her better half, tom hensen, who never thought he would meet "the one" until summer came along.
and the movie jumps from day one of their relationship, to the end of it. you get the idea how the movie is going to end when you walk into it, with the narrator (who sounds like freaking james earl jones for chrissake) tells you that what you're about to see isn't a love story, but a story about love. same thing? i think not.
the movie is essentially about unrequited love. it's about the missed opportunities. the things that don't work out. it's a comedy, but it covers all of these depressing topics. and that's what i like most about it. as described best in the showtime series weeds, a story can be intensely dramatic and depressing, but have inexplicably hilarious moments that coincide better than you would imagine.
it's a movie that's both emotionally devastating and hopeful. it reminds me of something of a cross between the movies eternal sunshine of the spotless mind and garden state. it's a rare film that displays completely fabulous acting, and it's not just your average love story. it doesn't have a beginning and an ending. it jumps in an indistinct order between the five hundred days of their relationship. and when their relationship is in its heyday, there's a choreographed dance sequence, not unlike the scene in the 2007 film enchanted. and it shows events in an incredibly depressing, but completely true-to-life way, where there's a split screen, one side, what's really happening in that moment, and the other side, what the character tom wanted to happen. and when we're in love, we find ourselves doing things like this.
so what can i say about this movie? everything is fantastic, the acting (especially the beautiful zooey deschanel), the writing, and the way the story is told, it's one of the best movies i've seen in 2009.