'500 Days of Summer' review Issue #40

Directed by Marc Webb

By Jayme Joyce
Published: August 1st, 2009 | 12:00am

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets the girl of his dreams while working for a greeting card company. Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is a realist who doesn’t believe in love, and Tom is a hopeless romantic — a perfect recipe for heartbreak. A storybook-style voiceover admits from the very beginning that this is not a love story, and the plot tries again and again to tear down the fairytale Tom so desperately wants to believe in.

Zooey Deschanel truly shines through every frame of this story, playing the sweet, quirky, and confident character we’ve seen in other romantic comedies such as Yes Man and Gigantic (2008). Following in the footsteps of Mark Wahlberg, Paul Dano, and even Jim Carrey, Joseph Gordon-Levitt takes a chance with Summer, who steals his heart immediately.

Summer is the anti-femme fatale. She wants nothing more than to have fun and live freely, and has no interest in finding love. It’s a refreshing concept — a girl who is interesting and strong with or without a boyfriend. Still, 500 Days of Summer begs the question: When will Zooey Deschanel have a role truly to herself, without any boys distracting her from reaching her true potential as a unique and inspiring character?