(500) Days of Summer

Like the parentheses in the title, “(500) Days of Summer” is a movie that has good intentions, and good results, but each laugh feels the tiniest bit calculated, the framing device all but shouted. Unlike a film such as “Pulp Fiction,” which took a non-linear approach simply for the hell of it, or “Memento,” which ingeniously took a plot point and twisted it to play with perspective, “Summer” is caught between the two. There is something to be said about telling a story as though it were a memory; with frequent lapses of coherence to jump around, but the story has no logical reason to be told in such a manner. That said, the writing is surprisingly tight, and wonderful art direction at least makes the movie look nice.

There may be a little too much “indie” for my personal tastes—honestly, The Smiths may be a great band, but not good enough to fall in love with a fellow fan—but also keeps things grounded—the protagonist figures out the same thing. It’s no spoiler to say that things indeed go south between Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel before the credits roll. Unfortunately, the “twee” factor (which, as a fan of “Pushing Daisies” and porcelain dolls, usually doesn’t bother me) gets stratospheric at times. The titles, upon which the film relies to place the scene on the timeline, decay from a brightly sprouting maple tree (Day 21! Day 113! Relationship bliss!) to drab gray clouds (Day 250… loneliness. Bummer.). It’s a detail caught between inventiveness (like when “Rushmore” did it) and eye-roll worthy (“Juno”). I mentioned earlier that the art direction is wonderful. It is, along with the costume and production design. The film feels worn in, like the shabby-chic vintage looks that the characters wear despite the Los Angeles heat. Does it add to the twee-ness of it all? Of course. But the attention to detail just gives the film more depth, in my opinion. Everything has a haze of blue and gray splashed across it. There is a moody romanticism to it.

The story is less revolutionary than it claims, but the fact that it is a film about young attractive people in a city that doesn’t adhere to standard romantic comedy formula is a welcome relief. Even the meet-cute encounter on the elevator is sweet. And once Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are the cute couple, their bonding is childlike and the sexual content onscreen is next to zero.

Ultimately, “(500) Days of Summer” is a sweet story about two opposites that don’t attract, despite the media infatuation with against-all-odds love affairs. It’s a message I could get behind, and despite a fairly standard send-‘em-to-hell speech that says so near the end, it’s played with a low-key, airy feel to it. It’s a movie to enjoy even more once you leave the theater and realize it wasn’t a waste of time by-the-numbers Hollywood flick.