More than a rom-com, (500) Days of Summer is a film that demands we interrogate our perception of love. Emmet Plasa bares his heart and shares his views on love in the film. Illustration by Millie Bundy
The film (500) Days of Summer means different things to different people. The film twists the rom-com genre following Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) a greetings card writer with a highly romanticised idea of what love should be.
The relationship between our narrator Tom and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) is complicated. His ideals are challenged when he meets her and believes she is the love of his life. Summer is far more cynical than Tom. She tells him that she doesn’t believe in soulmates and wants to keep their relationship casual – a point that Tom conveniently overlooks.
You cannot force change on the one you love.
Even once his relationship with Summer ends, he quickly moves on to another love-interest. This ending leaves us to imagine he has met the real love of his life – unless he is destined to repeat the cycle again. A process that will perhaps repeat until he meets someone who shares his romantic idealism.
This returns us to Summer’s cynicism.
“This is not a love story”
In complete contrast to our protagonist, Summer likes to be alone. Her attitude is pessimistic and offers none of the exuberance associated with Tom. Despite his excitement, he spends most of the film being miserable about Summer even if they do manage to bond over “bizarro crap”, pop culture and music. To Tom, this shared connection is a sign that they are meant for each other, but to Summer, their shared cultural tastes are purely coincidental. They are each bound by their views: romanticism and cynicism.
Summer likes to be alone.
Through Tom’s eyes, we are convinced that, within the classic rom-com setup, the situation between him and Summer will eventually change and that love will triumph despite their differences. However, the film refuses to deliver the satisfaction of a conventional romantic resolution. For Summer, the relationship is simple and casual – she is content to just be with Tom – while Tom, the more complicated of the pair, wants to change Summer and mould her views to match his.
“Plenty of other fish in the sea”
By the close of the film, it is Summer who motivates Tom to pursue his dreams of architecture while she herself chooses to marry someone who is decidedly not Tom. This change in Summer is not inspired by Tom’s efforts but despite him. The film suggests that you cannot force change on the one you love and you shouldn’t try. Instead of a romantic resolution, which sees Tom and Summer meet in a hazy compromise, each of them moves on.
The film asserts that instead of projecting our own ideals onto one another, we should seek a love that complements our own strengths and weaknesses. This is how we grow and if – like Tom – we discover that we can’t impose our own ideals on others, we should instead take a step back and – as Summer says – ‘agree to disagree’.
