(500) Days of Summer is a very good movie. Legitimately funny with sweetness and remorse.

It’s also a wonderful piece of filmmaking, with creativity in its creation, storytelling, and visuals. And yet for all that, it’s well grounded in real emotions, and doesn’t betray its characters or emotions.

Zooey Deschanel, who I thought was great in Elf and Almost Famous, can’t really hold up to the character’s description (after all, how many people can legitamately be described as drawing “18.4 double-takes per day” while also looking like a normal person who could be someone’s secretary.) She’s good. It’s a very tricky role and I don’t know that she always nails it.

But Joseph Gordon-Levitt proves himself, yet again, to be really wonderful. He was 13 in Angels in the Outfield … and good. He was caught in a Shakespearean/Tacoman plot in 10 Things I Hate About You … and was good. He was a teenage male hooker in Mysterious Skin … and was good. He was a teenage film noir detective in Brick … and was great. And again good here.

He just seems to be all around good. And he’s 28. I hope he’ll continue to be in a lot of movies.

The movie does end with a suckerpunch of a joke. It’s at about the level of a joke I would write in a movie. But it still works.