(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Romantic comedies can be as propagandistic as any jingoistic World War II-era flag-waver, playing in the sandbox of audiences’ lovesick fantasies while paying only lip service to the messy reality of relationships. That’s why you have to admire a picture as cheerfully impish as (500) Days of Summer and the zeal with which it both embraces and undermines the clichés of celluloid romance.

If that sounds potentially schizophrenic, it is – and occasionally the movie is too delirious for its own good. Within the confines of its boy-meets-girl, boy-loses-girl, boy-tries-to-win-girl-back scenario are bursts of invention that range from spoofing French New Wave and Ingmar Bergman films to an endearingly cheesy musical number built around Hall and Oates’ endearingly cheesy “You Make My Dreams.”

These bits are fun, but other clever ideas are followed by cringey ones. Director Marc Webb, who made his feature-film debut here after a career helming music videos, belies more enthusiasm than self-restraint. Still, the misfires are far and away outnumbered by those that hit the sweet spot.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt is Tom Hansen, an amiable dude who yearns to be an architect, but instead writes platitudes for greeting cards. He is an incurable romantic – the result, we’re told, of early overexposure to mopey British pop and a “total misreading” of The Graduate. So it’s no surprise when he falls hard for his newest coworker, a blue-eyed beauty named Summer Finn, played by Zooey Deschanel. Tom’s suspicion that she’s The One is only confirmed when he learns they share a love for The Smiths.

Tom is so certain of their compatability, in fact, he’s willing to overlook Summer’s pronouncements that she doesn’t believe in love, or even commitment, for that matter. It’s a perspective that prompt’s Tom’s best friend (Geoffery Arend) to observe admiringly, “She’s a dude!”

As it turns out, Tom should have heeded Summer’s warnings (but, then again, we wouldn’t have a movie if he had). Ensconced in hius rose-colored denial, (500) Days leapfrogs around in time throughout the course of the couple’s relationship, as writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber stitch together a narrative of the lovers’ shared moments and crossed signals. The movie suggests that a sizable chunk of love hinges on self-delusion and unrealistic expectations. Tom’s eagerness to connect with Summer feels as familiar as it is desperate.

This frankness somehow stops short of cynicism. There is much to dazzle here, from cinematographer Eric Steelberg‘s gorgeous takes of L.A. to a stellar alt-rock soundtrack. Deschanel’s charm breathes life into an underwritten role, and Gordon-Levitt delivers another winning performance.

If (500) Days of Summer isn’t a love story in the conventional sense (at least that’s what a voiceover narrator tells us early on), it nevertheless has a doe-eyed love for the intoxicating possibilities of movies. And that is tough for star-crossed cinephiles to resist.