Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love. Girl doesn't. This is not a love story but a story about love.  Surprising in its outcome, director Marc Webb’s debut feature is a charming postmodern reflection on crushes, unrequited love and relationships, structured in a non-linear fashion. Starting at day 488, the narration jumps back and forth to different days in the 500-day love affair. From day one, Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is completely smitten by new co-worker Summer (Zooey Deschanel); meanwhile, her interest in Tom is purely light-hearted fun.

Director Webb adroitly captures the moods of love's different stages (with numbers popping up on the screen to indicate the time of the action) and celebrates Tom's finally scoring with Summer in a boisterous, bring-the-house-down musical production number in a central L.A. park. A certain imbalance permeates the relationship even at its peak, since Tom believes in destiny with one true love, while Summer just wants someone fun and regards amour as a fantasy. Still, things go well for a while until, for no apparent reason, Summer turns cooler.

The leads provide everything a romantic comedy needs in terms of flair and likability.  Critic Roger Ebert calls it, “A delightful comedy, alive with invention.” The soundtrack of indie hits is a winner too.