500 Days of Summer

I was going to blog 500 reasons I loved this movie, but that would take forever. So here's an abbreviated list:

1. It's not your standard rom-com: As the tagline for the film goes, "This is not a love story. This is a story about love."

2. The movie opens with the following title cards: "Any resemblance to people living or dead is accidental. Especially Jenny Beckman...Bitch."

3. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays Tom, has gone from being DJ's creepy friend on the Roseanne show to become a formidable talent. And a hottie to boot...

4. Zooey Deschanel who brings a Holly Golightly charm to the title character of Summer.

5. Switching up the traditional roles with Tom as the idealistic romantic and Summer the commitment-phobic realist.

6. The awesome soundtrack which features Hall and Oates' You Make My Dreams Come True as part of a fabulously cheesy musical sequence that has an euphoric post "first time" Tom dancing down the street.

7. Clever but not overdone effects like the call-out to French and Swedish existential films (The Seventh Seal, anyone?), a split-screen fantasy vs. reality sequence and the random chronology of scenes illuminating the pre and post-breakup of Tom and Summer.

8. Los Angeles--the setting for the story--has never looked better!

9. Not your usual pat Hollywood ending. 500 Days of Summer is sweet and funny and sad, yet ultimately uplifting.

10. Did I mention Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel? That's the main reason for seeing the movie. Such cuties. Such chemistry...