We all know the drill: Boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy reunites with girl thanks to a final plot twist. But where are the movies in which the girl shatters the boy's illusions of romance forever? Look no further than Marc Webb's new flick (500) Days of Summer. Though at times too quirky for its own good, this largely wonderful film is one of the most insightful rom-coms to be released in a very long time.

The plot initially looks formulaic. Failed architect-turned-greeting-card-writer Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is unlucky in love. True to form, his best friends McKenzie (Geoffrey Arend) and Paul (Matthew Gray Gubler) constantly chide him about dateless nights. But everything changes the minute he meets Michigan transplant and new officemate Summer (Zooey Deschanel) who finds him charming and funny. For his part, she's the girl of his dreams. Over the course of 500 days, the two discover a few shared interests (The Smiths, Magritte, etc.) and one massive hurdle -- Summer doesn't believe in love. That final element is what separates this movie from the pack.

Tom, played with terrific candor by Gordon-Levitt, is a hopeless romantic. For him, love is a magical thing inspiring sunshine, lollipops and rainbows. But Summer sees such sentiments as nothing but a Hallmark ruse. For her, living life to its fullest is the most important thing.

Their up-and-down relationship, realized in tasty vignettes, accurately captures the frenzy of a romantic crush, as well as all the complicated emotions that follows afterwards. While none of this is revelatory, screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber write with candor and wit as they cleverly capture both the joys and pains of relationships, while never succumbing to the easy way out. As insightful about the generation its depicting as anything in recent memory, (500) Days of Summer is a rare, genuine movie about the heights and pitfalls of love -- from one oft-marginalized guy's point of view.


499 days to go.