‘500’ days of lost love

So, OK, I’m hooked. Today on “Movies That Don’t Suck” I’m watching the sequel to “Conan the Barbarian,” “Conan the Destroyer.” Amazing … Grace Jones stars as Zula, the “savage woman warrior” – those are Roger Ebert’s words – who pledges herself to the musclebound tough guy.

But as I watch Richard Fleischer’s 1984 fantasy-action flick, my mind is still occupied with the film that I saw a few hours ago: “(500) Days of Summer.”

Starring indie/one-time sitcom star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, this contemporary romantic comedy-drama tells the story of an ordinary guy – “perfectly adequate,” he was known in college – who falls in love. But as we are told up front, “This is not a love story.”

Tom (Gordon-Levitt) is an underemployed guy who, though he harbors dreams of becoming an architect, works as a writer of greeting cards. Yes, he’s one of the guys who reduces life to such clichés.

How about this one:
“Sweetheart …
You’ve touched my heart in a special way …
Giving me reasons to look forward to everyday!”

No, that’s not from the movie. I just pulled that from an online greeting-card service. Barf.

One day Summer (Zooey Deschanel) shows up. She’s a temp who works as secretary to Tom’s boss (Clark Gregg). And it’s love at first slight (seems Summer has a withering tongue), at least for Tom.

Summer tells him right off: She’s not looking for anything serious. But Tom, as with legions of guys (and, likely, an equal number of women) before him, decides that this time will be different. And that HE will make the difference.

Fool. “(500) Days of Summer,” directed by Marc Webb from a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber, is cleverly made. It moves back and forth in time, from the first day of Tom and Summer’s relationship to the last, visiting every day, every painful and/or captivating memory.

Some of Webb’s stylisms are cutesy, but they never seem overly so. In the end, they function perfectly with the acting put in by the excellent Gordon-Levitt and the serviceable Dechanel (whose perfection in the role comes from her ordinary presence that, to Tom, seems enchanting).

Truth is, most of us have had a relationship similar to Tom’s obsession with Summer. And most of us survived, ego a bit bent but with the knowledge that led us on to something better. “(500) Days of Summer” captures such coming of age with a style that is both knowing and fresh.

Seems to me that Conan could use some of the same wisdom.