(500) Days of Summer

Writers Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Webber and director Marc Webb examine the 500-day relationship of a young greeting-card writer (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and the woman he thinks is The One (Zooey Deschanel), beginning at the end of their romance and proceeding in seemingly random chapters as the shattered youth reviews his memories of their time together, wondering what went wrong and if he could have done anything differently. The movie anticipates and undercuts our expectations with rueful wit, twisting the knife to comic effect. Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel are its not-so-secret weapons; they’ve been toiling away in the Hollywood vineyards for years without attaining the stardom they plainly deserve. If there’s any justice, this movie should do it for them—it’s an Annie Hall for the 21st century.