It’s not hard to fall in love with Marc Webb’s directorial debut (500) Days of Summer, something that’s been happening regularly since it debuted at the Sundance Film Festival, where it received an unprecedented but well-deserved standing ovation from the audience at the Eccles Theater.
Based on a script by Scott Neustadter and Michael Weber, it stars Joseph Gordon Levitt (Brick, The Lookout) as Tom Hansen, a greeting card writer who falls head over heels for his boss’ new assistant Summer Bishl (Zooey Deschanel). He convinces her to go out with him and their relationship blossoms until one day, Tom realizes the enigmatic Ms. Bishl will never accept him as her boyfriend – she’s just not wired that way. Heartbroken, he spends the next few months trying to get over her while simultaneously trying to win her back.
There are a couple of things that make this boy-meets-girl movie so special, including the innovative non-linear narrative and the clever filmmaking techniques used by Marc Webb to bring this L.A. relationship comedy to life in a unique way that’s more truthful than it is cynical. It’s the first romantic comedy for intelligent romantics (i.e. Smiths fans!) who know that nothing ever works out the way we hope. (Okay, so maybe this writer is a little more cynical about love than this movie is.)
Considering how much we’ve loved the movie since seeing that memorable Sundance screening, we were glad to finally have a chance to sit down with Webb to talk to him about the movie in the exclusive video interview below.
(500) Days of Summer opens in select cities on Friday, July 17, and you can see the entire release schedule on the official site.
