It has been another terrible year for the Romantic Comedy (Ghosts of Girlfriends Past, The Proposal, and Confessions of a Shopaholic are three offenders that come to mind) and usually the British would come out with a wonderfully charming romantic comedy, but ever since the original Bridget Jones’ Diary British cinema has released nothing noteworthy.

So when I saw a trailer for (500) Days of Summer a few weeks ago I made a mental reminder to myself that I wasn’t going to sit through that. Yet here I am doing a review for it, and what do I have to say? This movie is going to be remembered as one of the great American romantic comedies and be mentioned in the same sentences as When Harry Met Sally and The Apartment.

The film opens with a wonderful series of warnings, and quickly mentions a woman from the writer’s past and calls her a bitch, then the narrator announces, “This is not a love story”. So I'm made to feel that this isn’t going to be another formulaic American comedy - the kind that seem to be written in a week, shot in a week and edited in a week - and I relax.

The tagline perfectly summarises the film: “Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't.” Joseph Gordon-Levitt (10 Things I Hate About You and Brick) plays the boy; Tom, a mid-twenties Architecture graduate who has settled for a job writing greeting cards. Zooey Deschanel (Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy) plays the girl; Summer, the newly hired secretary of Tom’s workplace. The film can be divided into three sections; the breakup and the original meeting which run together in non-chronological sequence through the first hour of the film, and Tom’s getting over the break-up.

Gordon-Levitt has all 86 minutes on screen and he manages to fill them surprisingly easily with his boyish charms, and an actual sense that he is vulnerable throughout. This role also shows huge diversity by the leading man; there’s a musical set piece, French Cinema and Ingmar Bergman send offs, so this isn’t just a strong performance by Gordon-Levitt but one that is award-worthy.

Deschanel’s part is undefined and very aloof, we are never given a proper insight into what Tom loves about her, but this is a story about the boy not the woman, and so she fills her role with a degree of perfection, even though she is a limited actress. All the minor roles are cast well too, with Geoffrey Arend, a relative unknown, the one that stands-out in his role as Tom’s best friend.

Marc Webb produces his maiden feature film with a great degree of care. The style and structure of the film could open itself up to accusations of pretension, but no; the way in which Webb parodies the pretension of European cinema, and makes slights at the convenience of the story is wonderfully endearing, and allows for a more natural feel to film.

Another thing has to be noted about this film is the soundtrack. A soundtrack can make and break a Romantic Comedy, and the songs selected are perfectly entwined within the plot. There is also an ideal number of obscure songs, and though there are mainstream songs the music nonetheless manages to capture a sense of the alternative nature of the film.

- Peter Downey

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