It’s been a while since American audiences have been treated to a realistic look at the rise and descent of young love. In fact, as far as realistic films about young twenty-somethings falling in and out of love go, they’re a rare species. When one eventually comes along a chord is struck with the generation it documents, and if we’re lucky, brings insight to those of a age and/or lifestyle. With the release of (500) Days of Summer, we arrive at such an occasion.

The film begins with a warning that “this is not a love story.” Some have said that this is misleading or a lie, but the truth is, this is a “relationship story,” one that truthfully–and sometimes brutally–examines the ups and downs of trying to find or create a love story in the twenty-first century. We begin at the end: Summer (Deschanel) has broken up with Tom (Gordon-Levitt) and his friends come to his aid, hoping to get him out of a rut they’ve found him lying in before. And so begins the relationship story.

Read the rest at Flacktard’s Film Fancies.

(500) Days Of Summer (2009)
Directed by Marc Webb
Written by Scott Neustadter & Michael H. Weber
Starring Joesph Gordon-Levitt, Zooey Deschanel