An incredibly fun and entertaining film that isn’t a love story, but a story ABOUT LOVE. This might be one of the best romantic comedies I have seen that was made recently, and I’d have to say I wish there were more with this film’s sense of humor. There’s something very funny about opening up your film with a character going through a nasty breakup and for some reason he has gotten stuck into ’break plates like a robot’ mode, and it takes his Yoda-like 10 year old sister to stop him. When he finally stops and drinks some Vodka made by said child, he goes on a "what just happened?" string of thought that even flabbergasts his own friends. Thus begins this film’s non-linear story featuring specific moments and specific days from a random selection of 500 days of him knowing this girl.
I compared this film to The Girlfriend Experience which is like its twisted dark sister whereas this film is the happy-go-lucky, almost neurotic sibling. Joseph Gordon-Levitt gives one of his best performances I have ever seen him give (although admittedly only seeing him in occasional moments on 3rd Rock from the Sun and Angels in the Outfield), so that might or might not mean much, but I do buy his efforts in this film. Zooey Deschanel also gives a great performance, and I definitely have no comparison to make there. Ergo, the two leads in this are pretty fresh and, because of that, it feels a lot more authentic than most rom-coms which almost always star well-known celebrities.
The film’s satirical approach works very well, especially if you’re into movies and music. Almost all of the film’s charm is in this humor: Levitt looks into a mirror and instead sees Harrison Ford as Han Solo winking back, a Disney-animated bird (Mary Poppins inspired) lands on his finger at one point, the two characters compare themselves to Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen, and hilarious reenactments of Godard’s Breathless and Bergman’s The Seventh Seal occur to parallel moments in their relationship. Hilariously cute film!