(500) Days of Summer (2009)

Sometimes all it takes for a film to rise above dozens or hundreds of similar films is a gimmick. With (500) Days of Summer, that gimmick is a nonlinear narrative. Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom Hansen, a depressed and lonely greeting card writer who meets Summer, the Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype played by perhaps the archetypical MPDG, Zooey Deschanel. We are told straight away that Tom and Summer broke up and that this is the story of what happened. The film skips back and forth over the span of their 500 day relationship, examining their differing attitudes to love, commitment and their relationship.

Gimmick aside, (500) Days of Summer is your standard bittersweet romantic comedy. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are very good as the doomed lovers and the shifts back and forward make for a refreshing change, but it's all been done before: boy finds girl, boy looses girl, boy moves on with new girl. There are, however, two stand-out scenes in the film.

The first is an absolutely fantastic and completely spontaneous song-and-dance number after Tom and Summer have sex for the first time. Tom emerges from his house, smiling and strutting down the street to You Make My Dreams by Hall & Oates. Fountains burst into life and strangers high-five and shake hands with him before a brilliantly choreographed flashmob-style dance erupts around him accompanied by a marching band and a pair of animated birds. As the number ends and everyone drifts away, Tom smiles at the camera, breaking the fourth wall and bringing to an end the ultimate "just had sex" scene.

The second is a scene later in the film. Tom and Summer have drifted apart, but she has invited him to her flat for a party. He puts on his finest, wraps her a gift and sets off. "He believed that this time, his expectations would align with reality", the narrator tells us. The screen splits in two, with the left-hand side labelled "Expectations" and the right-hand side labelled "Reality". They occasionally match up, but mostly they are the mirror opposite of each other. His expectation of sitting and talking quietly with Summer is contrasted with the reality of sitting at the opposite end of the table from her, making inane small talk with her friends about the job he hates; his expectation of looking out over the city with her contrasts with his reality of gazing out over the balcony, alone, as Summer chats with other guests and his expectation of the two of them moving somewhere more private and kissing is overwhelmed by reality. As the camera pulls back and turns to show reality from Tom's perspective, expectations is slowly wiped away and the split screen ends just as his expectations are overtaken by reality - she has become engaged to another man. Heartbroken, Tom storms out, walking off down the road and stopping in the middle of it. As he stands alone, his back to the camera, the image is painted over with a black and white drawing of the scene and then everything else is erased, leaving a single black figure standing in the shadowy, foggy remnants of the drawing, before he too, fades. The scene is accompanied by Hero by Regina Spektor, a haunting song that makes for the perfect accompaniment.

(500) Days of Summer is a fairly ordinary story lifted up by strong performances, an unusual narrative structure and two really memorable scenes. The whole is often greater than the sum of its parts. Here, the whole is made greater by some of the parts.

7 out of 10.