500 DAYS OF SUMMER (USA 2009) ***** Top 10
Directed by Marc Webb

500 DAYS OF SUMMER is this summer’s best movie.  Advertised as a movie about love and not a love story (500) DAYS OF SUMMER is in reality 500 days in the life of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt, best remembered from BRICK) as he meets, falls in love an d breaks up with a girl called Summer (Zooey Deschanel).  The summer of the title does not refer to the season.

Summer enters and leaves Tom’s life as fate affects ones life.  The story concentrates on Tom’s character with subplots that involve his friends (Matthew Grey Gubler and Geoffrey Arend).  In contrast, not much background is offered with regards to Summer.  She starts her job at Tom’s greeting card company and leaves as soon as they break-up.  There is no spoiler here as the film begins with the break-up and moves non-chronologically towards different segments of the relationship.  The titles in front of each segment indicate the number in brackets to allow audiences to know which time segment of the story is being told - a novel and effective device that works.

For a feel good movie, director Marc Webb’s first feature debut is a marvel.  Webb hits all the right spots, especially with the musical score and a fantasy song-and-dance number in the park (with everyone decked in blue) just after Tom has scored with Summer.  Webb alternates his film constantly between high points and the low points of Tom’s depression of the break-up.  Never have audiences’ emotions shifted from one end to the other end since Charles Chaplin’s LIMELIGHT, in which tears switch to laughter and vice versa ever so many times.

What also will make the film work for most is that most people will be able to relate to the characters.  How many have not fallen in love with someone who just wants to be a friend?  Or, if not – the other way around!  Everyone realizes the heartache and angst that comes from a break-up.  To look at an intelligent feel-good film brilliantly made and brimming of emotions, Webb’s film is indeed a rare gem.

An additional bonus of Webb’s film is its frequent nod to old movies. At one point when Tom walks beneath a fogged underpass, Tom reminds one of Malcolm McDowell as he strolled in a subway in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE.  Various film references to classics like the French New Wave films and THE SEVENTH SEAL will delight film aficionados.  The voiceover introduces the Tom character at the start of the film as an incurable romantic who loves films like THE GRADUATE.  Webb includes the famous last scene of THE GRADUATE as a clip.  But the best segment has Tom entering a room with the camera behind Summer’s lanky legs, a shot that truly pays homage to the Mike Nichol’s classic.  If one notices, actor Gordon-Levitt bears an uncanny resemblance to the young Dustin Hoffman at many points in the film.

Webb’s film is meticulously crafted.  This can be observed, for instance, in the synchronization of sound to musical score as in one segment where Tom initially bounces a tennis ball on the floor.  The IKEA store comedic set-up with the couple pretending to be a couple just as they act out in a make-believe place, works on two levels.

Best of all, the chemistry between the leads Deschanel and Gordon-Levitt is amazing.  Apparently on set, they listen to music together, in order to relate better to each other on film.  Deschanel who plays in a band is extremely musical in her role – whether humming a tune in the elevator or performing karaoke.

500 DAYS OF SUMMER is definitely not a romantic comedy.  But it is the best comedy about romance to come our way for a long, long time.  Don’t let it get away!