Out for Summer

A little bit of When Harry Met Sally and a lot of High Fidelity went into (500) Days of Summer, the latest indie dramedy about a relationship told from the guy’s perspective. Zooey Deschanel plays a cutesy 20-something who’d be the perfect catch except for one thing. Behind those baby blues is a girl who doesn’t believe in perfect catches, or true love at all really. Despite her impregnable cynicism, an idealistic officemate played by the soon-to-be-breakout-star Joseph Gordon-Levitt, falls hard for her. The film’s gimmick is jumping back and forth to different days of their relationship, both good and band by out of order, and occasionally context. What’s clear is that Gordon-Levitt has no idea, ultimately, why Deschanel doesn’t like him as much as he likes her, or why she does, says or feels the things she does. And really that’s about the most realistic portrayal of a young man’s understanding (or lack thereof) of women you can get. To wit, she once compares their relationship to Sid and Nancy’s, only she’s Sid and he’s Nancy. Ouch. Clark Gregg and Minka Kelly co-star. Rated R.