7/10
(2009) Starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt.
Dear OTC reader, you are right to be cautious of a film built around a pun (in this case there's a girl named "Summer", oh mercy). But I urge you to forgive 500 Days of Summer this misnomer because on the whole it's pretty enjoyable.
It goes like this – Boy meets girl. Boy falls for girl. Boy dates girl for an unspecified period of time. Girl declares true love to be impossible. Girl proves this by dumping his sorry arse. Hah! Take that. Boy mopes.
It's cute and a little gooey and if the navigation had been less capable it would have strayed into the badlands inhabited by such trite as The Break-Up and HappyThankYouMorePlease. (Seriously, what does the US have Navy Seals for if not to shut down such productions with extreme prejudice?)
So it would be easy to be cynical about 500 Days… But, while there is a questionable song and dance sequence, the charm of Tom and (particularly) Summer carries this film safely home. I couldn't help liking it. It's slick. It's smirking-funny. There's snappy dialogue. A good soundtrack. There are a few stunts (flashbacks and dreams, you know the type) which are pulled off with a sure hand.
And, sigh, I like this Zooey chick. Shame this is the most worthy production she seems to 
have been in (case in point: she was the only bright light in the otherwise grim Failure to Launch with Sarah-Jessica-I-look-like-a-foot-Parker and her TV show The New Girl can't be saved).
Still, the screenwriters didn't get it all right. I will try and deaden the horror of the last scene by breaking it to you gently here: just as it seems he has gotten over Summer, he meets a girl and upon asking for her name she says, to universal dismay, "Autumn." At this juncture Tom is at least good enough to look deeply into the camera with sincere apology. See? He is a sweet guy.
