(500) days of Summer is one of my favourite films of all times. I am not usually a big fan of romantic movies, thinking that most of them are all cliche with the same happy ending. But no, this movie is not a typical Rom-com. I would not say the ending is not “happy”, but well it’s not happily ever after, but that’s life right?
Directed by then first time director Marc Webb and starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel, this movie is a classic and must watch for all people who have experienced a heartbreak before. Love to wallflower Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) was a commitment, a head over heels for each other romance, and he thought he has found that in Summer, his gorgeous colleague in a greeting cards company. It was an instance love at first sight to Tom. And as it turns out, Summer is the exact opposite of Tom when it comes to love.
Summer is nonchalant, wild and religiously believes in her feelings before anything else. As they are moving on to another stage of their relationship, she refused to put a “label” on what kind of relationship they are in. One of the best part in the movie was when Tom reacted hugely after they had a major quarrel and Summer spitted out the phrase “But we are just friends, Tom”. I could totally imagine what kind of a heartbreak Tom undergone by just that simple phrase. Sometimes although you know what’s the deal in your relationship, all of that efforts that you have put in, those little happy moments that you two have shared, are all just gone just by that simple denial.
These are three favourite quotes from the movie that I think everyone could relate to;
- “Do you ever do this, you think back on all the times you’ve had with someone and you just replay it in your head over and over again and you look for those first signs of trouble?” – Tom (500) days of Summer
Sometimes you just don’t know when will that going to happen, what you did to cause the disastrous end of the relationship. And sometimes it needs no explanation, like Tom, he did nothing wrong. He was committed, kind and passionate to Summer. But with every time Summer avoided his eyes, every time she didn’t laugh at his jokes, and every time she tried to walk faster than Tom just so they wouldn’t need to hold hands, the signs were showing Tom that Summer didn’t want all of that anymore.
2. “I know you think she was the one, but I don’t. I think you are just remembering the good stuff” -Rachel
This is what Rachel, a 12 year old girl that Tom has a remarkably genuine friendship with, said to Tom when he asked for her advice after Summer left him. And this especially highlights the point that the director is hoping to achieve coming from somebody who has zero romantic experience, telling Tom that he is in the dark thinking that Summer is the one for him. And that happens right? We have once believed each of our exes as “the one” for us. And we only cry for the good stuff each time we “think” we miss them; when the rough stuff are the ones we need to understand and think of too.
3. “Someday, someone will walk into your life and make you realise why it never worked out with anyone else.” -Summer
This is by far my favourite quote from the movie, and clearly if you have watched this movie before, we all remember this last scene when Tom met Summer on the park bench a while after they have separated. And through realizing the once non-committal Summer has now become somebody else’s wife, Tom has finally come into peace with the fact that all he believed in, thinking that he must have done something wrong, are just complete and utter bullshit.
Summer just isn’t the right person for him. And Summer is not a bitch. There are two types of roles in a relationship, the one who loves more and the one who receives love and loves less comparatively. And Summer is the latter one, I have been a Tom at some point when I believed that things have to work out the same way that true love always does and I have been a Summer in some cases where I was the one who was just not sure what exactly did I want in that relationship. There’s never a right or a wrong in a relationship, and we are all learning, aren’t we?
After all, after Summer, there’s always Autumn.
Bits and Pieces 