If laid out in a straight linear progression, the story would go something like this: Tom, who has trained as an architect but is currently working for a greeting card company, first meets Summer when she is hired as a new administrative assistant. Tom is immediately smitten by her, but he is sure that she is too pretty to be interested in someone like him--that is, a normal, average guy. It turns out that he is wrong, as they bond in the elevator over their mutual love of The Smiths, and after a few encounters at work and after-work get-togethers, they become romantically involved. However, there is a fundamental obstacle, which is the fact that Tom and Summer have diametrically opposing views on the nature of love. Tom, ever the idealist-romantic (which is why he is so good at writing greeting cards), believes whole-heartedly in romance and love at first sight and simply “knowing” that someone is “the one” (which is humorously explained via an early flashback of Tom completely misreading the ironic ending of The Graduate as a kid). Summer, on the other hand, thinks that love is just a label and that relationships should be casual and fun, rather than serious and all-encompassing. Thus, there is a built-in breaking point in their relationship, and it’s only a matter of time before they reach it.

(500) Days of Summer, however, is not told in a straight linear progression, but rather in a whipsaw back-and-forth manner that allows us to see moments of happiness and sadness, tenderness and anger, togetherness and separation right next to each other. One of the film’s very first sequences is an awkward date that ends with Summer declaring that they should start seeing other people, thus we are primed from the beginning to understand that the relationship may very well not work out. This would seem to cast a pall over even the happiest of moments, but part of the film’s pleasure is the way it shows how our memories of the good and bad intertwine and obscure each other, depending on the moment. Marc Webb, a music video director making his feature debut, has a good feel for the material and is able to stretch it in numerous directions, at times allowing it to play as heartfelt drama, but at other times tickling us with the funny-sad absurdities of romance. These come at both ends of the emotional spectrum, with scenes of Tom wallowing in his own self-pity when the relationship is falling apart contrasted with the hilarious and out-of-the-blue musical setpiece following his first night with Summer, in which Tom and a park full of strangers break into a show-stopping rendition of Hall & Oates’ “You Make My Dreams.” It’s purposefully kitschy and silly, but it is also a pitch-perfect depiction of a romantic high.

There is no doubt that (500) Days of Summer is an exceedingly male-centric film, which is perhaps why I identified with so much of it. The entirety of the story is told from Tom’s perspective (sometimes literally inside his head, as in a devastating scene that uses split-screen to show on one side his idealized version of what should happen and the other side to show the discomfiting reality of what does happen). Tom, who is well played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt, is in virtually every scene, and we see him talking through his relationship highs and lows with his friends and what happens to him when Summer is not in his life. Thus, Summer is always in danger of becoming a romanticized abstraction, and in some ways she is because she is framed from the beginning as Tom’s ideal. Yet, Zooey Deschanel, with her slightly off-kilter beauty and inherent intrigue, keeps Summer profoundly human, and we can see why Tom would be so enamored with her and want to hold on to her, even when she is clearly and defiantly pulling away from him. One of the film’s most striking moments of truth is a replayed sequence of close-ups of Summer in bed, with one sequence narrated by Tom explaining all the little things he loves about her and the second explaining all the things he hates about her--which are, of course, the same things. Tom’s only defense in heartbreak is to hate what he loves.

For everything that is moving and funny and often brilliantly executed in the film, some of the plot doesn’t quite work. For example, we don’t believe for a second how quickly Summer moves on from Tom and plunges into a new relationship at much greater depth; I thought for sure it was some kind of dream sequence or waking nightmare. It’s also somewhat hard to believe that Summer would treat Tom with such casual cruelty by leading him on at a wedding after they have broken up, and then inviting him to a party, the purpose of which is all but guaranteed to devastate him. The point is to show that she has moved on and he hasn’t, but surely she would have more sensitivity than this, especially knowing him and his romanticized inclinations. Yet, even with these few missteps, (500) Days of Summer is a difficult film not to like. It has a frothy, effervescent charm that far exceeds its whimsical indie-film touches because it is rooted in the kinds of recognizable truths that give weight to what would otherwise be simply amusing.

Copyright ©2009 James Kendrick

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