500 Days of Summer

"500 Days of Summer", directed by Marc Webb and starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt is simply put one of the best movies to come out this year.  Summer is generally the time of year for lots of sequels or other poorly made blockbuster movies, so "500 Days of Summer" is a welcome change.  Everything in the movie just works.

The movie opens with the narrator saying "This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story."  And that's exactly what the movie is like.  Love stories as far as movies are concerned are often times predictable, tired, and cliched.  "500 Days of Summer" is not like that at all.  In the movie Tom Hansen (Gordon-Levitt) works at a greeting card company and one day Summer Finn (Deschanel) joins the staff and Tom falls for her and they begin dating.  He seems to want a much more serious relationship than she is initially willing to give him.  The movie does not follow their relationship chronologically though, starting with day 488 and going back and forth between various points in the couples relationship, both the good times, and the not so good. 

Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt were perfectly cast as the two leads.  This is the first movie I have seen with Gordon-Levitt so I can't comment on his other works, but I have previously enjoyed watching Deschanel in "Elf" and "Yes Man"  The two actors have chemistry with one another and are believable as characters and the audience begins caring about and relating to these two different people.  The other actors in the film that portrayed other friends and co-workers were also well cast, but obviously overshadowed by the two leads.

The writing is great as well. The narration is effective and a welcome addition to the movie and having the movie go out of order adds a more original aspect to the story.  The script is the perfect length, having the movie clock in at a round an hour and a half.  Nothing is drawn out and every scene including a brief musical number complete with animated bird, just like an old Disney movie, the couple going through IKEA pretending that they live in each of the model rooms, and Summer getting mad at Tom for trying to protect her from a guy at a bar they are in, has a reason for being in the final cut of the movie.  Just about every joke is executed perfectly and fits so well with the tone of the film.  And when the script turns serious for a moment it still works well and flows naturally.

"500 Days of Summer" is well casted, written, directed, paced, and has a great soundtrack.  It's a romantic comedy, just a whole lot better than most and well worth the time and money to see it.  4 stars out of 4.  I'm pretty sure most people will have a pretty hard time finding a better movie this year...except maybe "Up."

-Joseph Sbrilli