The Movie: Almost a cinematic companion to How I Met Your Mother, (500) Days Of Summer is, by its own admission, a story of boy meets girl, but not a love story. A then-rising Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, a hopeless romantic warped by the industry built around romance to have unrealistic expectations of love. He meets the much more down-to-earth Summer and we get to experience the full 500 days of his emotional attachment to her. Scattershot in time (theres a non-linear narrative included for some reason) all the typical relationship touchstones are ran through with a blunt freshness What The Title Gives Away: Even if you hadn't twigged the 500 days was a limit on the couple's relationship before you sat down, the films opening narration condescendingly summarising Toms poor grasp of love makes it clear were only going to end up in one place. Rather than making things feel repetitively rote, here it serves to build the emotion of the story; we know its going to be a rough ride and as the fabled five hundredth day rolls around the anticipation of what makes the obsession stop reaches fever pitch.
