“(500) DAYS” IS BITTER WHIMSY

Do we endure pain because we think we don’t deserve pleasure? Do we love freedom or do we fear responsibility? What if Kris Kristofferson had it right when he wrote “Freedom’s just another word for nothin’ left to lose” in “Me and Bobby McGee?”

These are the thoughts sent spinning by watching “(500) Days of Summer,” this season’s tale of troubled romance starring Zooey Deschanel and Joseph Gordon-Levitt. It seems like this is Deschanel’s first romantic comedy lead. She does alright, though her genius is playing those sullen character roles – women who consider themselves too smart to be pulled into games where men make all the rules.

Of course, anyone who thinks men make any of the rules in the Game of Love really isn’t paying attention.

Which is kind of the message in “(500) Days of Summer,” a gimmick title hiding the essential fact Deschanel’s character is named Summer. Gordon-Levitt plays Tom, the guy who gets jerked around throughout his 500 day relationship with Summer because she has a very guy-like fear of commitment.

It’s sort of like that other movie, “He’s Just Not That Into You” only “Summer” loves to think it is a more complex picture. After all, Deschanel is every hipster’s sweetheart. How could she possibly be in a film that isn’t filled with deep-seated Chekhovian inertia?

Gordon-Levitt is certainly sympathetic enough in a sappy suburban way. He’s the kind of guy who would be reluctant to return a shirt to the Old Navy store just because the sleeves aren’t quite right. He also likes to get drunk and sing at his favorite karaoke bar. Just knowing he has a favorite karaoke bar tells you a lot.

First-time feature film director and co-writer Marc Webb avoids any need for a plot by numbering each of those days like so many index cards and then tossing them all in the air. However they come down, that’s the order they go on the screen. He doesn’t film all 500, but he does cover quite a few.

The idea is that Tom’s heart gets sliced, diced and tossed into so many lovelorn salads he doesn’t know what day it is, anyway. Oddly enough, by the end he has become the sad sacks’ sentimental favorite. What warms the memory of “(500) Summers” is knowing the point is not to decide who won or lost, but to appreciate how cleverly they played the game.