(5) Days of Summer Chick Flicks

Boy Meets Girl. Boy Travels Through Time. Girl Makes Boeuf Bourguignon.

“This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story,” opines the narrator at the beginning of (500) Days of Summer. Liar.

It’s all about love. Normally this would have me running for the hills (the more phallic, the better), but sometimes even non-sentimental saps like me need a break from Michael Bay and the robots.

I initially saw (500) Days of Summer somewhat under duress at a press screening. I like star Joseph Gordon Leavitt, but really I was there at the behest of a friend who wanted to be my +1. As it turns out, it was pluses for me: I adored the movie and not only have I been telling everyone I know to check it out, just yesterday, I put my money where my mouth is and paid to see it again.

(500) Days of Summer star Leavitt, as Tom, an emo boy who listens to The Smiths, wants to be an architect but writes greeting card sentiments for a living instead, and longs for affection. When Summer (Zooey Deschanel, now officially forgiven for The Happening and Yes Man) strolls into his life, Tom falls hopelessly in love. Emphasis on the hopeless, because Summer doesn’t feel the same, and all structure crumbles. The story unfolds day by day, each out of order, as we witness the couple’s evolution to dissolution.

Since the movie has been out awhile, I won’t retread what other reviews have already said, but suffice to say, this is a rare, genuinely funny and touching character-driven rom without the usual dippy TV sitcom setups (however, it is quite reminiscent of Pushing Daisies). Well worth at least two looks.

Also out this summer is The Time Traveler’s Wife, a rather sudsy fantasy based upon the bestselling novel of the same title. For fans of Benjamin Button (or, if you’re into more vintage out-of-sync love stories, think Somewhere In Time), this tale of star-crossed spouses should more than fill the bill. Starry-eyed Rachel McAdams excels at this kind of thing (remember her in The Notebook?) and Eric Bana isn’t half-bad to look at.

While the following two movies — Julie & Julia and Coco Before Chanel — may not be billed as romances, they most certainly are.

Julie & Julia, out now, is based upon the memoir of Julie Powell (a blogger who took on the task of cooking every single recipe in Julia Childs’ intimidating tome, Mastering The Art of French Cooking). I read the book first and mostly enjoyed it, but I wondered how director Nora Ephron would handle the material. Would it be too sweet? (Michael was okya, but I’m so not in the Sleepless in Seattle or You’ve Got Mail camps.) As it turns out, Julie & Julia is my favorite film of hers to date…which isn’t exactly a ringing endorsement. The lead actresses, Amy Adams as the blogger and Meryl Streep as the chef, are nothing short of amazing. Their long-suffering husbands — played by Chris Messina and Stanley Tucci — are quite charming. The flips back and forth between decades (nonlinear time seems to be all the rage in cinema these days), showing Julie in New York and Julia in Paris, are handled with soufflé finesse.

Coco Before Chanel, also directed by a female (French filmmaker Anne Fontaine), is the story of the famed clothing designer and stars the ever-engrossing Audrey Tatou in the title role (she’s done lots of things, but if her name doesn’t ring a bell, you might recall her breakout role in 2002′s Amelie). While it’s not surprising or refreshing in its approach at all, at least Coco Before Chanel isn’t as bad as it could have been (I’m talking bad-bad, like the Coco Lifetime Movie starring Shirley MacLaine). It’s just okay, elevated thanks to great performances by Tatou and her costars Benoît Poelvoorde and Alessandro Nivola. There are some beautiful locations, magnificent steeds and lovely garments, but overall, it’s by-the-pattern and probably better seen on the small screen.

My title implied 5 chick flicks for the summer, didn’t it? Like the Narrator of (500) Days of Summer, I’m a liar. (But I am looking forward to the Amelia Earhart biopic starring Hilary Swank — there’s a chick flick if ever I saw one!)