This unexpectedly moving romantic comedy, which coyly wraps its moments of sharp-edged truth in a comfortable blanket of indie-film quirk, is built on a clever temporal structure that whips us back and forth through the eponymous 500 days of the relationship between a young man named and the obscure object of his affection. Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber demonstrate a genuine affection for the turbulence of romantic entanglements, and it is their recognition of both the comedy and the tragedy of every high having a matching low that makes the film work so well. (Hollywood Jewel 16, Waco, TX)