The movie comfortably rests midway between a drama with a few funny moments and a romantic comedy with a serious dose of realism. Tipping the scales towards one side or the either is just a matter of viewer taste and mood at the time of the viewing, but no matter the perspective the film’s presence in one’s long term memory is short lived.

The plot is rather simple: Tom Hansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) meets Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel); boy falls in love; girl is looking just for fun and does not fall in love; boy is in pain; viewer is trying really hard to care. The stream of events follows this general pattern throughout the entire movie and there are no surprises in stored for you, no special events, no change of pacing, no nothing. And this is probably the film’s greatest flaw: it gives you too much to begin with, basically the entire story in the first five minutes, and when it tries to focus on certain specific elements it has no power to keep you hooked. It’s like declaring the patient dead and then hoping that spectators with no medical background are interested in hearing about the type of symptoms the he manifested prior to his demise. So yes, the script sucks, big time, in the sense that it’s just another one underlining what we already heard of or experienced during our lifetimes. And I’m pretty sure that not many need a two hour long lecture on how and why the sun comes up every morning, and 500 Days of Summer fits perfectly in this category.

It’s really a shame that the script fails in such obvious ways, because apart from that the film is fortunate enough to enjoy almost every element that could have made it a great hit. It has a very good acting crew that delivers a decent performance that even spikes towards extraordinary heights when it comes to Joseph Gordon-Levitt. The directing is far superior to that of any other romantic comedy out there and it even made me go “wow, that was nice!” not only once, but several times through the movie. But, once again, I’m sorry to say: that is simply not enough. It doesn’t matter how spectacular is the way in which you say things if what you say has absolutely no importance, no depth, no value. In my opinion the movie is just another example of wasted potential.

So if you are looking for a romantic comedy, I would not recommend 500 Days of Summer, if you are looking for a drama, I wouldn’t recommend it either and if you are looking for some way to waste your time, I’m pretty sure you can think of a thousand better methods of doing it than going to see this movie.