500 Days of Summer (2009)

Every once in awhile Hollywood gets it right. The stars are aligned just right, the right people are cast, and all the pieces fit together just right.

Such is the case with 500 Days of Summer a romantic comedy that actually seems somewhat plausible. It captures all the stages of a relationship: Boy meets Girl, Boy falls in love with Girl, and well.... to give away any more would give away too much of the movie.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt (best known for playing Tommy Solomon on the late 90s sitcom, Third Rock From the Sun) plays Tom Hanson who believes in love, that one day he'll meet "the one," and that he'll "just know" when it's right. Enter Summer (played brilliantly by Zooey Deschanel). Everything seems to click, she has similar taste in music and films, she inspires Tom to better himself.

She must be "the one." The movie jumps back and forth between the relationship and the post-relationship as Tom desires and tries to win back Summer's love.

Throughout the movie there's an honesty to their relationship that feels real and tangible. Maybe we've not experienced the exact same relationship as Tom & Summer but there's a familiarity there. Most of us have experienced something similar to their relationship or know someone who has.

500 Days of Summer is at times subtle and at other times a bit more direct, much like real relationships often are. It's nice to see a film that doesn't insult the viewer's intelligence nor their emotional experience. There's no need to suspend disbelief as the film-- it's plot and characters are completely believable.

There are some amusing but at the same time completely plausible karaoke scenes that add to the overall enjoyment of the film.

If you're sick of the dime-a-dozen sameness of Sleepless with Music & Lyrics in My Mail or some other preposterous formulaic excrement that Hollywood churns out faster than an incontinent dog 500 Days of Summer will be a refreshing treat and escape from the norm.