This is indeed a love story (which ends differently)

Rating: 9/10 (1 January 2012)

We are warned by the narrator at the start of the film, that this is not a love story.. I think this was an attempt to condition the audiences rather than anything else.
The movie moves in a non-linear time line which makes the movie that much more interesting.
The actors (Gordon-Levit and Zooey Deschanel) easily fill in the shoes of the characters. The characterization is so good that you simply do believe that these are people who could be a part of your life.
The presence of friends (one with a girl-friend since school & one with no hope of getting a girl-friend) are so much part of anyone's life.
The manager in the office, who realizes that his employee is going through a lean period thinks of using this phase to get him to create sad greeting cards rather than the happy love cards that he is used to creating. You can always find managers like this in your offices.
The leads are characterized by their simplicity (the dressing sense of Tom, the dressing and the hair-style of Summer).
As they grow closer, the air of confidence displayed by Tom is infectious. Their break-up breaks his heart completely. The scene in which Tom goes to the super market to buy some soda and drinks in his bathrobe is another scene which really shows the heart-break that this guy is going through.
And then the finish. As they say, after every storm, there is a new start. Knowing that Summer is now finally out of his life, the way Tom re-starts his life, going after his long standing dream of becoming an architect.
That's when he meets Autumn (named intelligently) at an interview. That's when the film ends, leaving it to the speculation of the audience on what would conspire between Tom & Autumn.
What I really like about the film is that it is different, yet very realistic. The film also ends on the promise of hope!