I hate romantic films. So I was reassured by the omniscient narrator’s declaration that “This is not a love story”. But by the end of the film, I would have to disagree with the omniscient voice, (500) Days of Summer is a love story. Yes, I said it; it isn’t an anti-love, alt-romcom, a meta-romcom, or any of that nonsense, it’s not even a romcom. No, despite it’s supposed detachment from the ’love’ label, “(500) Days of Summer” is a love story, but not ‘love’ as we know it. Unlike most films of the same genre, this isn’t a ‘girl meets boy; boy meets girl; they fall in love and they live happily ever after’, as the poster tagline clearly states: ’boy falls in love, girl doesn’t’. This exploration of love’s euphoric highs and the emotional disillusion of its implosion is cleverly and honestly constructed by scriptwriting duo Scott Neustradter and Michael H. Weber, and music video director Marc Webb.

Love is anything but a linear journey, it is more like getting lost in a dense forest and trying to find your way out, and Tom’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) post-Summer (Zooey Deschanel) rehab resembles that. After being regulated to the dreaded “Let’s be friends” status by the woman he thought to be ‘The One’, Tom is an emotional mess; reliving the fantastical romantic montage of moments that they shared – drawing on her arm, running around Ikea and his big I’m-in-love dance sequence, while being slapped across the face with the reality stick. Despite the signs, and against his better judgment, Tom is determined to get Summer back.

There is absolutely no doubt that this is unashamedly a male perspective on love and the heartbreaking outcome, but for all the male subjectivity, Tom is relatable to both genders. Tom’s character is no hero, but his situation is recognizable and relevant because we’ve all had bad days in which the world around us is inanely happy, while a black storm cloud resides above our heads. If anything, as my favourite sequence in the film explores, men, like women, have different ideas about love, some are more honest and realistic than others, but there really is no difference between the sexes; love hurts. Tom resides in many of us; his notions of love are askew, unrealistic – as the expectations/realty split so cruelly but truthfully demonstrated – and a pastiche of love cliches force-fed by the media. In short, Tom is a pathetic love fool. But aren’t we all? Yes, at some stage in life we are Tom, hoping for those quirky moments, only to be nursing our emotions back after a Summer high. And like Tom, do we learn from heartache? Like hell we do! In our strange, but seemingly necessary, infatuation with love and being in love we are doomed to make the same seasonal mistakes. Why? Because we truly believe that next person that comes into our lives will make it magical better. Yep, our love ideologies are Disney films on a continuous loop.

Tom may have a serious case of love-is-a-bitch, the bitch being the wide-eyed Summer, which is no surprise as this is Tom’s subjectivity. He tries to mould her into what he wants her to be, the whimsical Ikea-shopping, penis-shouting girl who will eventually fall in love with him. But, despite the subjectivity, this isn’t just a film about Tom. Summer is a grown woman, and despite Tom attempting (and woefully failing) to make her his one-dimensional love doll, the Super-8 prologue and her no-nonsense straightforward honesty about her expectations and intentions makes her character equally as intriguing (and probably more so) as Tom’s, and saves Summer from being simply a cold-hearted heartbreaker. Tom and Summer’s characters are not just a challenge to each other – he’s a love fool, she’s not – but a challenge to the audiences – those who believe in love and those who are cynical about love. For the love cynics, myself included, this film truly those uphold the old adage that it is better to love and lost (and hurt) than to never have loved at all.

“(500) Days of Summer” is undoubtedly smart, but it is far from faultless. At times the film feels like a catalogue of romantic cliches that jar against the underlying irony; while Tom’s – who is a grown man, may I remind you, dependence on his younger sister (Chloe Moretz), whose pragmatic wisdom on relationships is far too knowing for pre-teen, had my mind screaming for Tom to grow some much-needed balls. But these bumps along the road are few, and should not take away from the film’s many achievements, especially by the director and scriptwriter. Webb brings a plethora of tricks from his music video directing days, not to the film’s disadvantage. The expectation/reality split-screens, the moody European film references, the male interview montage, Webb reuses these cinematic and technical references to cleverly illustrate the Tom’s hyperbolic highs to lowest of lows, and the complicated paradox that is love. While the observant script by Neustradter (who appeared to have loved and lost Summer, twice) and Weber, is cathartic release we all need. Both Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, are not Jennifer Aniston or Matthew McConaughey, and I thank God for that. The general anonymity of both actors to the big Hollywood blockbuster romance season plays in their favour and clearly gave them the freedom to just inhabit the roles, rather than just playing the roles.

Contrary to what the narrator says, this is a film about love, but not the love we think we know or its clichéd ideologies. Love isn’t birds and bees; it isn’t some fantastical alignment of the cosmos; it isn’t written in the stars; and it isn’t fate. “(500) Days of Summer” shows that love can sometimes be great, that it sucks, and that it will often hurt, but that’s life; it is the painfully candid hallmark card we need to hear from time after time.