One Fine Days

You always know how a romantic comedy will end. But that’s not how it is with (500) Days of Summer (opens July 17 in limited release), a bittersweet dissection of the vicissitudes of the heart.  Starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom Hansen and the mysteriously serene Zooey Deschanel as Summer Finn, (500) Days is a patchwork quilt of love’s every shade, zig-zagging back and forth in time as Tom recalls the 500 days of his love affair, piecing together the world that Summer’s unwittingly torn apart.

The film’s an inventive joy, played against a backdrop of alt-rock staples (The Smiths, The Pixies) and new discoveries (The Temper Trap, Deschanel’s band She & Him). Newbie screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber toy with time sequencing and aren’t afraid to have Tom break into a choreographed dance to Hall & Oates’ giddy “You Make My Dreams Come True.”

And while we always love Deschanel, it’s Gordon-Levitt who’s a revelation. That little boy from 3rd Rock from the Sun is a leading man now, concerned with a different type of rock these days — the kind that can slip perfectly onto a lover’s finger.


(500) Days of Summer opens July 17 in limited release, and throughout the country in the following weeks. See here for release schedule.