The romantic comedy sub-genre has to be one of the most staid, tired, formulaic and generic forms of cinema around. It's become a safe formula; a guarenteed money maker but completely forgettable and with little artistic merit. A recent example would be The Proposal. It's a lazy, cliched film, with a ridiculous high concept plot and contrived plot points, none of which feel authentic. The same cannot be said of (500) Days of Summer. Everything about this film feels authentic and real. Every situation, every scenario seems plausible and connected with me on a personal level. These characters don't meet in a cute way (they meet boringly at their workplace), there's no mad misunderstanding, the relationship doesn't break up and then is magically fixed in a frantic final scene. This film deals with reality. The characters act like real people would in their situation. They experience the giddy, euphoric highs that love can generate, but also the bleak, soul-crushing lows too. Director Marc Webb finds new and exciting ways to represent these emotions, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel are note perfect in their roles. The film has an interesting and unique structure running through it, jumping between the 500 days that represent the relationship, so we can start on day 400 when the relationship is falling apart and then skip to day 17 when it's burgeoning. It's brilliantly done, and keeps the film feeling fresh and interesting. So likeable is the film and the characters that you start to pine for the happy ending that you know inevitably isn't coming. (500) Days of Summer is definitely the most original, connective and authentic romantic comedy in recent memory (perhaps of all time). Like any relationship, it's at times brilliant, beguiling, triumphant, tender, touching, sad, beautiful, profound but never less than real. Absolutely fantastic. The surpise hit of 2009 for me.