Review: 500 Days of Summer

Whilst not quite the anti-love story it purports to be, (500) Days of Summer has two major twists that make it stand out from the romcom pack.

Firstly, the film goes against the grain of the usual fare, presented as a (non-linear) recollection of events told from the male perspective of things and secondly and most importantly, unlike most of the romcom pack, (500) Days of Summer its actually rather good.

Zooey Deschanel may play the character of the film's title, and can't fail to be great in role that is tailor made for her, but Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the real star of the show here, throwing himself into a role that should make him a star, always managing to engage in a performance that spans the polar opposites from ridiculously love struck to heart broken and back again in an instant.

On the strength of what comes before it you'd have hoped for a slightly less cheesy ending and there's always the slight feeling of someone trying to hard to be cool (see shoe-horning in Joy Division, Smiths and Belle & Sebastian references in the first 10 minutes) instead feeling natural like a Juno, but 500 Days of Summer deserves its spot as the indie hit of the year so far.