Before actually seeing this film, I knew it was made for people like me. People who shop at thrift stores despite having no economic reason to do so, people who pride themselves on their obscure film and music knowledge, people who frequent dive bars and sing bad karaoke.

Oh yes, this film was made to be my cinematic soul mate of summer 2009, complete with a soundtrack that would surely turn up at our wedding. But if that’s the case, then why did our relationship fail? Why was our love merely a “Meh” rather than a “Wow!”?

The protagonist, Tom’s (Joseph Gordon Levitt), little sister said it best: “Just because some cute girl likes the same bizarro crap you do doesn’t make her your soul mate.”
The film depicts the relationship between Tom and Summer (Zooey Deschanel), from its magical beginning to its eventual decline. You are made to know from the start that this is not a love story, and that assessment is accurate. Love is not the overwhelming emotion in this film—if anything, heartbreak reigns supreme.

Summer, who is not looking for love or a commitment, crushes poor Tom, who thinks she is everything he wants in life. She is beautiful, personable and likes the same bizarro crap he does. (The moment when his love for her seems to click is when he discovers that she, too, likes the Smiths. Really? The Smiths? Next thing you know, they’ll be bonding over their mutual love for Bruce Springsteen—oh wait, they do!)

As you can tell from my sarcastic aside, the two have no discernible chemistry aside from their similarities, which is both evident in the film and to the audience, and almost painfully so. Despite the fact that Summer initially reciprocates Tom’s feelings, it is obvious that her feelings are nowhere as intense as Tom’s and that he is just hurting for a heartbreak. You know from the beginning that their relationship doesn’t work out, and while this may seem to be a plot mechanism of a progressive screenplay, it only serves to make the enjoyable moments not so enjoyable. Sure, it’s unusual and quirky, much like Tom and Summer, but like the pair, you will find out why it doesn’t work.

While I love Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel separately, they just don’t seem to mesh in this film. Perhaps they are too much of the same thing, with their doe-eyed hipster attractiveness, snazzy clothes and quirky demeanors. Too much of a good thing, and still way too much of the same thing. Levitt is allowed to shine in some scenes (especially in a cutesy dance scene, a la Singing in the Rain), but Summer never lives up to her hype. She is projected as being independent and unconventional, but throughout, she just seems distant and selfish. Perhaps this was intentional–to make viewers understand why Tom is better off–but it seems wholly uncharacteristic of Deschanel. Much like Amy Adams in Julie & Julia, she is too much something else to portray the role at hand with the right amount of zest needed. I hope that Deschanel will continue to be cast as a leading lady (as she is more akin to the leading ladies of yesteryear than the drone-twigs of today) but this was not the film to start that progression.

There is not much else to say about the film, as it lacked much-needed depth. Boy meets girl, boy and girl don’t work out for whatever reasons, heartbreak is inevitable but you will eventually move on—all resounding cinematic themes. This movie, however, was only the skeleton of such plots, with no brain and definitely no heart. The music is good, the sets are good and the costumes are good. But someone can have great taste in music, a nice apartment and wild wardrobe, but that still doesn’t make them a good or interesting person.