There comes a moment in some movies after which it can do no wrong. In (500) Days of Summer, it’s a split-screen sequence that contrasts romantic hero Tom Hansen’s (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) heightened expectations for a party with the disappointing reality. It’s whimsical in its construction, but so sad in its effect. Like the rest of the film, it’s subjective about the nature of love, showing us not how it functions in reality but how it works on the mind and emotions, is filtered through our memories, and comes out a heightened version of itself. After this scene, I leaned in closer to the screen; I don’t think a single word or shot thereafter could have made me admire the film any less.

This is the kind of comedy that doesn’t inspire peals of laughter, but boy does it make you feel good. I had two concerns at the outset: (1) that this would be a hyper-ironic indie hipster trifle saturated in its own presumed “cool,” and (2) that it would be one of those indulgent screenplays that jumbles the narrative just for the sake of jumbling. To answer the first, an early scene with Tom’s precocious younger sister Rachel (Chloe Moretz) had me worried — always beware of precocious tots in the movies — but the film develops complex textures far beyond ironic detachment. To answer the second, the story is told out of order to an extent, but not arbitrarily so, and to good effect; its method reminded me of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, which was also about love and memory and is surprisingly similar in its feeling to this one. That is a comparison not only of style but effectiveness, and it is high praise.

An unidentified male narrator, who speaks as if conducting an anthropological study, says at the start of the film, “This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know up-front — this is not a love story.” Doth the screenplay protest too much? Fiona Apple once wrote a song that wasn’t about love; she sang, “It’s not about love, ‘cause I am not in love. In fact, I can’t stop falling out.”

Whether or not it’s a love story, per se — the characters involved might give you a different answer depending on the day — it’s most certainly about love. One sequence has characters speak directly into the camera about love. In another scene, characters discuss whether love exists at all. The story is set in and around a greeting card company, where love is commodified; Tom works there as a writer and at a moment of cynicism delivers a speech about love that is among the film’s finest moments. Throughout, we can feel the film working through these ideas, wrestling with them. It reaches into Tom’s head and over his five-hundred days tries to understand the truth and nature of love.

Tom meets Summer (radiant Zooey Deschanel), the boss’s new assistant, and is smitten, and though she doesn’t believe in love he’s a hopeless romantic and doesn’t give up. We learn early on that they break up somewhere in the middle of their five-hundred days, and there are a few cleverly — and sometimes poignantly — interwoven scenes that contrast good times with bad, like a failed attempt to recreate a romantic moment, or as small as differing moods upon exiting an elevator. Tom reevaluates his memories, reinterprets old looks, glances, and reactions. Where did he go wrong? Can he win her back? Is nothing ever really meant to be? The rich and idiosyncratic screenplay by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber is handled terrifically by Marc Webb, making his feature directing debut. They tell the story with stylistic flourishes that enhance without becoming gimmicks, including a Bergman-inspired black-and-white film montage and an impromptu dance number. The music — both the original score and some inspired song selections — is contemplative, and bits of slow-motion add to the plaintive mood.

I would be hard-pressed to name a young film actor better than Joseph Gordon-Levitt. Able to be demonstrative or completely internal — and in this film he’s a little of both — he inhabits difficult roles with clarity and understanding, like in Mysterious Skin and The Lookout. And when it came time to star in a romantic comedy, he picked this one, which is “not a love story” but is a story about love nonetheless. However unlucky, you can’t fall out of love without first falling in.

Watch a trailer for the film here: