A unique and experimental film. One of the year's finest!

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2009)

500 Days of Summer experiments with the pain and the happiness that romances bring. It deals with the expectations of a hard-in-love young man, and how his whole reasoning behind his feelings is about to be tested with who he believes is his soul-mate. Her name is Summer, and she is beautiful, charming, and honest. She does not believe in finding love for the first time, and does not see love in the point of view Toms sees it in. That is why when both Tom and Summer start being closer with each other, Tom is confused about what kind of relationship they are in. It turns out, Summer leads him down a path that will inevitably make him learn about how real life works. He believed that Summer was his one true love, and is even abstruck when it turns out Summer is the one that found someone she can call her 'soul-mate'. This reinforces his ideas that love is unexpected, and like the final scene says, there are just 'coincidences' that lead to it.
The film is directed by first-time film director Mark Webb, and he did a fantastic job. Thanks to the great screenplay, music, and editing he creates a sort of fairy-tale tone to it, but as the film goes along, we realize that that is not the case. There are many inventive scenes in the film, most notably a dance and music sequence, and a split-screen scene where Tom's expectations are met with the reality of the scene, and they are quite simply brilliant. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is fantastic as Tom, and Zooey Deschanel really nails her character. Deschanel embraces all of the reasons why Tom falls in love with her, making the audience as awestruck by her as he is.
Overall, this is quite simply the opposite of most romantic comedies these days, and for that I am very pleased. The film deserves high praise and honors!