The lovely indie-chic romantic comedy, 500 Days of Summer, tells the story of a male 20-something phenomenon: the guy who is desperate to settle down to one woman and only one woman. He is the prince in this modern Los Angeles anti-fairy-tale, instead of the emotionally unavailable wanker so prevalent in popular films and everyday life. Unfortunately, the boy falls for the female twenty-something phenomenon: the girl who is desperate to remain “casual” and never commit to one guy. She is the princess in flight.

The disarmingly disgruntled leading man realizes that he is not the prince to his princess. Romantic relationships are so often littered with this imbalance of expectations — one person wants to have a baby, and the other person just wants to go to happy hour at a karaoke bar. You could call it “bad timing.” But for the ones who want to have a baby, it’s more like an extended mourning period of bleak wandering in streets that are haunted by the girl who liked to sing karaoke.

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