(500) Days of Summer 2009

Ben Lyons, At the Movies: I can't speak highly enough about this really inventive romantic comedy. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: <em(500) Days of Summer ffinds just the right scale and tone, neither trivializing nor melodramatically overstating the delicate feelings it explores. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: There's no real drama when the inner life of the female lead is so shrouded, even if that's the point. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: For all its ambitiousness, (500) Days of Summer feels synthetic and derivative, a movie that's popping with perceptions while searching for a style. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A fresh July breeze among recent (and mostly stale) romantic-comedy offerings. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: It goes down smoothly, thanks in large part to Joseph Gordon-Levitt's grounded lead performance and Marc Webb's slick direction, but it seems like every other scene coughs up a dispiriting cliche. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: An unpredictable, immensely satisfying experience, much like love itself. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: The movie charmed me enough to send me out smiling, and I can see younger filmgoers taking it very much to heart. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: [A] visually witty, flawlessly played romantic comedy. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: The film gets by on a few funny lines...some playful split-screen imagery from first-time feature film director Marc Webb...and the real star of the picture, second-billed: Zooey Deschanel. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: What saves 500 Days from terminal shallowness are Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel, who are not the usual picture-perfect androids peopling these young-love idylls. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: This movie has flighty warmth. It makes delirious use of one of Hall & Oates' boppiest tunes. It has a bluebird of happiness, for crying out loud. Read more

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is movie magic most unexpected. Read more

Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: It's a Gen-Y Annie Hall made by a new-style Wes Anderson who uses his cleverness for humanity instead of postmodern superiority. Read more

Laremy Legel, Film.com: It's very smooth and well done; Marc Webb clearly has a solid visual eye and natural sense of pacing. Read more

Amy Nicholson, I.E. Weekly: This is a film that so respects love -- if it exists -- that it won't settle for imitations. Read more

Michael Ordona, Los Angeles Times: (500) Days of Summer is something seldom seen: an original romantic comedy. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: This is a romantic comedy that makes the concept of romantic comedies appealing again -- that reminds you how resonant and transporting they can be when they're done right. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: It's a tale you've heard a million times before. But it's told in such a relatable, inventive way in 500 Days of Summer, it almost feels like the first time. Read more

Richard Brody, New Yorker: Forcedly cute, clumsily mechanical, overdetermined, and undernourished, this ostensibly soulful romance is a plastic void. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Even if (500) Days of Summer isn't truly great, it is great fun, from its fresh view of Los Angeles to its use of music to its charming leads. Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: A romantic comedy that feels like real life. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: It's the oldest bittersweet story in the book, of course, but music-video director Marc Webb approaches his feature debut with great confidence, flair and a minimum of schmaltz. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Thanks to two wonderful, offbeat performances by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, this movie has charm to spare. It looks you right in the eye and tells the truth. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: It isn't Hugh and Andie or Meg and whomever, but (500) Days offers hope that Hollywood can pass that romance baton to somebody other than the crude crew of the Kappa Alpha Apatow frat house. Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: An engagingly breezy tale about a guy with a broken heart and the girl who broke it. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: [Director] Webb treats his characters and his audience with respect. The result is something worth savoring regardless of the season in which it is seen. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: In romance, we believe what we want to believe. That's the reason 500 Days of Summer is so appealing. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: The ending is tidy and way too cute, but (500) Days is otherwise a different kind of love story: an honest one that takes a piece out of you. Read more

Stephanie Zacharek, Salon.com: Everything that's wrong, on the surface, with (500) Days of Summer pales in light of everything that's going on beneath its surface. Read more

David Wiegand, San Francisco Chronicle: An irresistible feel-good movie about love gone bad. And that really isn't bad at all. Read more

Dana Stevens, Slate: If only some sharp-eyed script editor had run 500 Days through the de-sappifying machine, it could have been the first great romantic comedy of 2009. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The film's postmodern path takes us through touching, tender, hilarious territory before winding up at the most beguiling part of any love story. The beginning. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: The swooningly romantic comedy (500) Days of Summer is a movie that will be discovered, embraced and shared with friends like a favorite record album. Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The movie suffers at times from a surfeit of adorableness in its two leads, as well as clumsy voiceover narration and a general sense that the subsidiary characters have about as much edge as plush toys. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: Falling in love or falling out? This film offers a helpful tonic for either condition. Read more

Richard Corliss, TIME Magazine: I guess maybe I'm not Tom but Summer. I like your looks, and heaven knows I appreciate the energy you put into wooing me, but I don't want us to be a couple. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: If it just misses being this generation's 'Annie Hall', it's still deliciously refreshing, sweet and fizzy. A sherbet dip of a movie. Read more

David Fear, Time Out: Scratch any cynic and you'll find a romantic; scratch this movie's surface and you'll discover a typically tepid ode to pitter-pattering hearts dressed up in thrift-store chic and faux-edginess. Read more

Christopher Orr, The New Republic: Captures with such immediacy the elation and anxiety of new love, the tingle and the terror, the profound sense that you have never been more alive and the occasional wish that you could die on the spot. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Much like Annie Hall did for a previous generation, (500) Days of Summer may be the movie that best captures a contemporary romantic sensibility. Read more

Todd McCarthy, Variety: Boy gets girl and boy loses girl in convoluted, sometimes cloying but ultimately winning fashion in 500 Days of Summer. Read more

Robert Wilonsky, Village Voice: What is unexpected is the sincerity beneath the modest conceit that, yup, love hurts. Read more

Desson Thomson, Washington Post: Finally, a romance that understands we mark our lives by our scrapes with love, and our defeats, rather than simply white-wedding-cake success. Read more