What We're Watching

It's a rom-com isn't it? Boy meets girl, boy and girl fall in love, boy does something bad, girl leaves boy. Boy redeems himself as girl is about to board a plane and the two are reunited. Happy ever after.

Wrong. (500) Days of Summer is all about the L-word and is very funny, but that's where the story falls away from the formula.

For a start, Summer (Zooey Deschanel) doesn't want a boyfriend and despite being in a relationship with Tom, declares true love does not exist.

Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) has other ideas. For him it was love at first sight and if he had had that cliched plot on his side, we would have seen him down on one knee just after the opening credits.

The film chronicles the 500 days of their entanglement from the moment Tom sets eyes on Summer across the greeting card company office.

We first meet Tom post-break-up, quite a hint that something is amiss in rom-com land.
What follows is a cautionary tale for the staggeringly smitten.

It is gooey in parts. Summer is at times irritatingly kooky with unfeasibly good hair and Tom simply a bit wet but this is a truly original and refreshing film.

It will make you melt then freeze you to the bones, not dissimilar to those few days of summer we had last year.