Read the more complete and looooooooooonger version of my review here.
Spoiler Note: If you have not watched (500) Days of Summer, do not read this blog if you do not want to be spoiled. This journal entry is meant to be a movie review/reflection.
(500) Days of Summer is not your normal love story. It isn’t as shown in the disclaimer at the start. It is a story of boy meets girl, but it did not end happily with both of them together at the end. Oh wait, we are getting too quick in describing it (even if this is the first descriptions my memory could provide me).
Summary
The flick is about Tom meeting a very special girl named Summer. The movie showed the usual developments of how two individuals get to meet each other. The great thing about it was, it was done realistically. Based on my experience, I never had a ‘love at first sight’ with a girl whether it be a crush or a girlfriend. The girl normally attracts you in a physical way but nothing happens special quickly. As evidenced in the movie, it was a subtle getting-to-know-you process. It evolved from the party to the elevator routines to the karaoke night before they got to be fully acquainted with each other. When the thing between them developed positively, that was the time they went the next step. It was in American context so the next level was their sexual relationship and dating. In the Philippines, it is normally dating. Nevertheless, you should get it – their relationship developed to something more special.
They dated and Tom had the time of his life. From playing husband and wife with Summer at the mall’s appliance center to their park hangout. It was the mushy part of relationships where they get to have fun with each other’s company. For Tom, it was the ‘honeymoon stage’ where everything seems right at the world and everything about the one you care for seems to be awesome. It developed further when Summer revealed more about her by narrating a story which she never told anyone. That was the time when Tom arrived at the next stage. His feelings grew and the infatuation/companionship grew into love. Unfortunately for him, either he misinterpreted the situation or Summer never felt something deeper for him. Tom’s fondness of Summer grew further and he started perceiving their relationship as a boyfriend/girlfriend thing.
As we know, Summer felt differently (Tom was just a friend to him), thus the inspired Tom who suddenly became the bearer of strong happy thoughts in their greeting card office went crashing and burning when they parted ways. Summer evidently left the office as well. It happened in the midway of the 500 days and he spent the next days feeling what normal human beings endure – depression in the aftermath of a failed relationship. His world shattered and his greeting card messages became depressingly awful. Months went by until Tom met Summer in an unexpected scenario. They got to talk and got to share each other’s moments again. For your typical movie scene, this is the ‘it’s destiny’ point. They separated but since fate showed Tom’s way back to Summer, he thought that they were meant for each other.
Plot thickens when she invited him to a party which made him expect that they will have the happy ending he wished. But reality hit him when he found out that she would be married. Tom went crashing back again to despair. Tom lost his job because of his emotions. On the other hand, Summer gets married. They still got to meet with each other where she put things in closure with Tom. They were just not meant for each other. The story ended when Tom applied for a new job and meeting a new girl. Ironically, this girl’s name was Autumn. Story ends there.
Review and Reflection
That was the chronological summary of the story but the movie was set up to have a non-linear plot. The days jump off from the relationship development moments to the depressing moments and back to the happy ones again. That made the movie more appealing. My brother stated that the movie had a simple plot but because of its structure, it became an art itself. We get to see the ironies of a happily-in-love guy to the loser guy. We get to understand how love greatly affects humans as seen in Tom’s greeting card messages. Instead of pitying Tom for his long emo moment, I saw it in a refreshing, funny way. The movie goes out of the box by being a story of ‘moving on’ and teaching an important lesson about it: being miserable sucks so you really have to move on. I do not know for you, but I understood it that way. The switching situations made me visualize how funny and pathetic it is to continue the misery. A linear method would have me feel more pity and (probably sulk… yikes!) with the main character. Lastly, the artistic non-linear way is the realistic approach because after all, we just remember moments in bits and pieces of non-chronological order.
Speaking of reality, the plot was so genuinely true. I can confidently say that most relationships end up badly. It is about time that we get to watch something that happens 90% of the time in this world. Tom had a significant revelation of this when he resigned: we are usually spoon-fed with goody, happy-ending, fantasy stuff but the truth is, it seldom happens. (500) Days is not your inspirational movie but it gives a valuable point for us to be realistic on how to approach relationships. Yes, there is always a chance that we end up in Summer’s experience of finally finding our true love but we must also be aware that it usually does not happen. I also liked the idea that the writers decided to make it an open-ended story after Tom met Autumn. It made me realize that Autumn will not be necessarily Tom’s next girlfriend but she is more of a symbolism that it is time to move on from Summer.
After all the creative ways and insights that the movie portrayed, I must admit that I liked (500) Days of Summer because I got to relate with the characters easily – not just Tom’s perspective but of Summer’s as well. I do not think that there is any need to elaborate on Tom’s viewpoint because it was already shown in the whole movie that he was the kind of guy who would try to fight everything just to keep his love burning for ‘The One.’ Ask my friends and they can tell you that I was like that for a lot of times. However, the story also made me understand Summer as well. Call her heartless for breaking Tom’s dreams but the movie is just a testament that a relationship is a two-way connection. Summer did not feel anything special from Tom, thus she clarified to him that they were just going to end up as friends. They were not meant to be so it had to end in some ways. The fact that she did not feel deeply in love with him after hundreds of days just showed that it will not materialize at all. She was just realistic. Just like Tom’s little sister. Her comment ‘there are too many fishes in the sea’ does not mean that you should disregard your current relationship and hop from one to another without any care. What it signified was the fact that Tom should look at the bigger perspective – there are lots of opportunities out there if you let them into you and you should not waste them by focusing on a lost cause.
With this, I easily give the movie a rating of 10/10. It was simple yet sensible. Funny and real. It is a break-up movie but it should be a feel-good one as well, because for me, it reinforced my idea of ‘why be miserable when you can be awesome, instead?’
Spoiler Note: If you have not watched (500) Days of Summer, do not read this blog if you do not want to be spoiled. This journal entry is meant to be a movie review/reflection.
(500) Days of Summer is not your normal love story. It isn’t as shown in the disclaimer at the start. It is a story of boy meets girl, but it did not end happily with both of them together at the end. Oh wait, we are getting too quick in describing it (even if this is the first descriptions my memory could provide me).
Summary
The flick is about Tom meeting a very special girl named Summer. The movie showed the usual developments of how two individuals get to meet each other. The great thing about it was, it was done realistically. Based on my experience, I never had a ‘love at first sight’ with a girl whether it be a crush or a girlfriend. The girl normally attracts you in a physical way but nothing happens special quickly. As evidenced in the movie, it was a subtle getting-to-know-you process. It evolved from the party to the elevator routines to the karaoke night before they got to be fully acquainted with each other. When the thing between them developed positively, that was the time they went the next step. It was in American context so the next level was their sexual relationship and dating. In the Philippines, it is normally dating. Nevertheless, you should get it – their relationship developed to something more special.
They dated and Tom had the time of his life. From playing husband and wife with Summer at the mall’s appliance center to their park hangout. It was the mushy part of relationships where they get to have fun with each other’s company. For Tom, it was the ‘honeymoon stage’ where everything seems right at the world and everything about the one you care for seems to be awesome. It developed further when Summer revealed more about her by narrating a story which she never told anyone. That was the time when Tom arrived at the next stage. His feelings grew and the infatuation/companionship grew into love. Unfortunately for him, either he misinterpreted the situation or Summer never felt something deeper for him. Tom’s fondness of Summer grew further and he started perceiving their relationship as a boyfriend/girlfriend thing.
As we know, Summer felt differently (Tom was just a friend to him), thus the inspired Tom who suddenly became the bearer of strong happy thoughts in their greeting card office went crashing and burning when they parted ways. Summer evidently left the office as well. It happened in the midway of the 500 days and he spent the next days feeling what normal human beings endure – depression in the aftermath of a failed relationship. His world shattered and his greeting card messages became depressingly awful. Months went by until Tom met Summer in an unexpected scenario. They got to talk and got to share each other’s moments again. For your typical movie scene, this is the ‘it’s destiny’ point. They separated but since fate showed Tom’s way back to Summer, he thought that they were meant for each other.
Plot thickens when she invited him to a party which made him expect that they will have the happy ending he wished. But reality hit him when he found out that she would be married. Tom went crashing back again to despair. Tom lost his job because of his emotions. On the other hand, Summer gets married. They still got to meet with each other where she put things in closure with Tom. They were just not meant for each other. The story ended when Tom applied for a new job and meeting a new girl. Ironically, this girl’s name was Autumn. Story ends there.
Review and Reflection
That was the chronological summary of the story but the movie was set up to have a non-linear plot. The days jump off from the relationship development moments to the depressing moments and back to the happy ones again. That made the movie more appealing. My brother stated that the movie had a simple plot but because of its structure, it became an art itself. We get to see the ironies of a happily-in-love guy to the loser guy. We get to understand how love greatly affects humans as seen in Tom’s greeting card messages. Instead of pitying Tom for his long emo moment, I saw it in a refreshing, funny way. The movie goes out of the box by being a story of ‘moving on’ and teaching an important lesson about it: being miserable sucks so you really have to move on. I do not know for you, but I understood it that way. The switching situations made me visualize how funny and pathetic it is to continue the misery. A linear method would have me feel more pity and (probably sulk… yikes!) with the main character. Lastly, the artistic non-linear way is the realistic approach because after all, we just remember moments in bits and pieces of non-chronological order.
Speaking of reality, the plot was so genuinely true. I can confidently say that most relationships end up badly. It is about time that we get to watch something that happens 90% of the time in this world. Tom had a significant revelation of this when he resigned: we are usually spoon-fed with goody, happy-ending, fantasy stuff but the truth is, it seldom happens. (500) Days is not your inspirational movie but it gives a valuable point for us to be realistic on how to approach relationships. Yes, there is always a chance that we end up in Summer’s experience of finally finding our true love but we must also be aware that it usually does not happen. I also liked the idea that the writers decided to make it an open-ended story after Tom met Autumn. It made me realize that Autumn will not be necessarily Tom’s next girlfriend but she is more of a symbolism that it is time to move on from Summer.
After all the creative ways and insights that the movie portrayed, I must admit that I liked (500) Days of Summer because I got to relate with the characters easily – not just Tom’s perspective but of Summer’s as well. I do not think that there is any need to elaborate on Tom’s viewpoint because it was already shown in the whole movie that he was the kind of guy who would try to fight everything just to keep his love burning for ‘The One.’ Ask my friends and they can tell you that I was like that for a lot of times. However, the story also made me understand Summer as well. Call her heartless for breaking Tom’s dreams but the movie is just a testament that a relationship is a two-way connection. Summer did not feel anything special from Tom, thus she clarified to him that they were just going to end up as friends. They were not meant to be so it had to end in some ways. The fact that she did not feel deeply in love with him after hundreds of days just showed that it will not materialize at all. She was just realistic. Just like Tom’s little sister. Her comment ‘there are too many fishes in the sea’ does not mean that you should disregard your current relationship and hop from one to another without any care. What it signified was the fact that Tom should look at the bigger perspective – there are lots of opportunities out there if you let them into you and you should not waste them by focusing on a lost cause.
With this, I easily give the movie a rating of 10/10. It was simple yet sensible. Funny and real. It is a break-up movie but it should be a feel-good one as well, because for me, it reinforced my idea of ‘why be miserable when you can be awesome, instead?’
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