Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) & Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel) are extreme opposites.Tom is a trained architect, who works at a greeting card company. Tom believes in True Love and Summer doesn't. When Tom meets Summer, who is his boss' new assistant, he begins to fall for her. One night, one of the colleagues and Tom's friend, McKenzie (after getting drunk at a karaoke bar), reveals to Summer about Tom's feelings for her. Summer makes it clear that she is not looking for a relationship and doesn't believe in the existence of true love. Nonetheless, the two begin to hang out and go on dates. They get closer and Tom feels like they should give their relationship a name. The differences begin to arise and Summer and Tom, split up.
The narration is non-linear and It gives an account of the 500 days that Tom spent with Summer and her thoughts, after the break-up.
Joseph Gordon-Levitt is the perfect Tom Hansen. Nobody else could have portrayed Tom better. He makes it seem like the character was based on him. He is natural and adorable. Zooey Deschanel, is terrific as Summer Finn. Chloe Mortez, who plays Tom's younger sister, Rachel Hansen, is a mature and sensible woman, trapped in the body of a teenage girl. She is Tom's agony-aunt and probably, the only sane thing left in his life. She doesn't seem extreme and unreal.
The movie has so many memorable lines and scenes. My personal favourites are:
a) Tom and Summer seated at a table in a diner. Summer is breaking up with Tom. She compares themselves to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, the passionate and heroin-addicted couple, who met with a tragic end.
Tom: "Summer, Sid stabbed Nancy seven times with a kitchen knife. I mean we have some disagreements but I hardly think I am Sid Vicious."
Summer: "No, I am Sid!"
Tom: "Oh...So I am Nancy..."
b)Rachel Hansen, Tom's younger sister, sort of consoling him, while her friends giggle and ogle at Tom in the soccer field.
Rachel: "Better than that, you find this out now before you come home and find her in bed with Lars from Norway."
Tom: "Who's Lars from Norway?"
Rachel: "He' some guy she met at the gym with Brad Pitt's face and Jesus' abs."
c)Tom, on a date with a girl called Alison, post break-up, explaining his heartache to her.
Tom: "She took a giant shit on my face...literally!"
Alison: "Literally?"
Tom: "Well, no, not literally. That's disgusting!"
Rachel, fed up with Tom's depression.
Rachel: "Quit being a pussy!"
The film runs 95 minutes and every minute of it interesting and fun. It's got off-beat scenes, (one that you rarely find in Hollywood films) like Tom, happy as a he can be, singing and dancing his way to work, after things work out between him and Summer. How the world around seems happy and gay, like him. The scene at Summer's house party where the screen splits into "Expectation" & "Reality."
I'll just go ahead and say it, It's the script and the vision of the director, that makes this absurd love story so watchable!
This is a spoiler but I am going to let you on to this one. It display's the Author's note, which says:
"The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to persons living or dead is purely co-incidental. Especially you. Jenny Beckman. Bitch!"
Now, with a disclaimer like that, would't you watch this one?
