Movie Review: (500) Days of Summer

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(500) Days of Summer (2009)–**

You should know up front this is not a positive review. It’s not a negative review either. But if you take (500) Days of Summer seriously, I guess you could say it’s a “real” review.

This Marc Webb film longs to find something genuine in its tale of two lovers while wrapping the picture in a tired faux-indie package. It’s a romance made for middle-class hipsters, people who are smart enough to recognize a nod to Bergman but who would rather not experience his films. If that’s you, then you’ll probably love this movie. For most audiences, (500) Days of Summer) is a film with some good times and great moments, but it’s certainly not the one movie we’ll be spending the rest of our lives with.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt stars as Tom, a young man who, as the opening voice over narration puts it, grew up believing that he would never truly be happy until he met the one. This geek-chic greeting card writer thinks he’s found his one when he meets his bosses new assistant, Summer (Zooey Deschanel).

Thanks to that same voice over (and an early break-up scene), we’re led to believe that the film is not a love story. Instead we get snippets of high times, moments of turbulence, and realizations that it just wasn’t meant to be—not in that order.

(500) Days of Summer works during the moments where the blossoming romance has Tom dancing in the streets. With strangers. Musical-style. Gordon-Levitt enjoys himself when Tom is high on love. But the 28-year-old actor, who has given some heavy-duty performances in The Lookout and Mysterious Skin, is unchallenged when it comes to writer/director Webb’s fleeting, lightweight heartbreak sequences.

The doe-eyed Deschanel, however, is perfectly cast as the dream girl. Deschanel has an unearthly quality that fits Tom’s vision (and Webb) sees Summer. She and Gordon-Levitt have some great moments, such as a shopping trip to IKEA where the couple plays house in the store’s room-like displays. Unlike Gordon-Levitt, Deschanel can take the film’s weaknesses in stride, if only because it’s not about her. This is Tom’s movie, which is where the problem lies.

Tom is at the same place at the end of the movie as he was at start. His months-long quasi-relationship with Summer hasn’t profoundly changed him, not in a way that could separate this from similar light-hearted romances. The Apatow gang rejects he calls his friends will likely have the same reaction to Tom’s next relationship: “This is not good.” And trust me, it’s not.

The film may understand the realities of modern day relationships, but when (500) Days of Summer ends you feel like you’ve seen any other romantic comedy. Sure, it’s rom-com for people who shop at IKEA, but it’s still just a rom-com.

(500) Days of Summer, starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, directed by Marc Webb, opens July 17.