(500) Days of Summer (don’t forget the parentheses!) is a conventional boy-meets-girl story dressed up with a bundle of enjoyable and inventive extras. It’s a lot of fun.
The film-makers dug deep into their box of tricks for this film. The timeline zooms back and forth across the 500 days. A voiceover occasionally offers explanations. There’s a surreal moment when the thunderstruck protagonist turns into a drawing and gets erased, and an even more surreal song-and-dance number during an earlier happy moment.
Even though there are quite a few cliches — such as the kindly boss, the loveable loser friends and the wise little sister — there is enough humour in the thing to keep you smiling.
I must single out the film’s website for special mention because it (a) looks amazingly low-rent, plastered as it is with ads, (b) has an amusing Sid & Nancy ripoff featuring the leads from the movie (you have to see the film to understand), and (c) lets you make a film poster with your own photos mixed in (as I’ve done with a few random holiday snaps here — see if you can spot the Portuguese landmarks).