'(500) Days of Summer' vs. 'Annie Hall'

last updated 8 January 2015

The "enchantingly original and romantic" (500) Days of Summer is "a Gen-Y Annie Hall," said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Zooey Deschanel delivers an outstanding performance as the "capricious, alluring, and not entirely knowable" Summer, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as Tom, the guy who falls for her, "lets you read every glimmer of hope, pain, lust, and befuddlement beneath his nervy facade." This exceptional movie "is like a mood ring cued to the ups, downs, and confusions of modern love." (watch the trailer for (500) Days of Summer)

(500) Days of Summer is "charming and inventive," said Alonso Duralde in MSNBC.com, and will likely "be embraced by audiences who were born during Reagan's second term. Or Clinton's first." But "for all its visual acuity, sharp acting," and "hopscotching timeline," it still "feels like yet another in a series of Annie Hall wannabes."

Annie Hall was "clever," said Armond White in the New York Press, this movie isn't. (500) Days of Summer "is so annoyingly cute about the smartness of middle-class young white people in love that one quickly realizes it is only about that—not love nor passion as everyone experiences it." And the ending "really is the most obnoxious movie moment since Juno."