The voice of the disembodied narrator at the beginning of (500) Days of Summer tells us that although this is a story of boy-meets-girl, he's very clear that the movie you're about to see is not a love story.

He's right, of course. The film chronicles 500 days in the life of Tom, a 20-something greeting card writer played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt who has the unfortunate affliction of believing in "The One." So naturally after he meets the free-spirited and captivating Summer, played by the free-spirited and captivating Zooey Deschanel, and they embark on a sort of relationship, Tom believes he's found her. The One, that is. Meanwhile, it's never quite clear what Summer thinks she's found; when she's not coyly approaching, she's pushing him away … and so the 500 days that Summer dominates Tom's life are marked by a lot of things — promise, beauty, frustration and pain — but love is not one of them.

While the film never quite plays Summer as a villain, its sympathies are clearly with her counterpart. It's through the overexposed haze of Tom's memories that we see Summer. After they sleep together for the first time, it's Tom's boisterous joy the film channels with hilarious accuracy. And when an indignant Tom screams, "You are not the only one who has a say in this! I do too and I say we're a couple!" it's him you want to cheer for.

After all, real love is about reciprocity and there's something vaguely heroic about Tom's demands for it. The movie flirts around with the idea that love isn't about meeting cute or heady trips to IKEA or being pulled around by your heartstrings but it ends with the suggestion that guys like Tom shouldn't give up hope in The One … just in this one.