When I was growing up, I was always interested in television
shows and movies where a guy falls in love with a girl, fails a couple of
times, and then, ultimately, he wins her over. Ted Mosby from How I Met Your
Mother was my favorite. Whether he was going after Victoria, Robin, or whoever
else was his love that season, he always got them, even when they said that
they did not want to. He was my idol. I tried to replicate this and had zero
luck. I was discouraged. I had followed the advice of Ted, Ross, and Leonard
and still it didn’t work, even when these characters told me otherwise. Even
Adam Sandler was able to woo Drew Barrymore not once but twice. Then I
discovered 500 Days of Summer.
For those of you who have not seen this film or its been a
minute since you’ve seen it, the story follows Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and
the 500 days of his life after he meets Summer (Zooey Deschanel). Sumer tells
Tom early in the movie that she does not believe in love. They begin dating and
after a few months of being together, Tom asks where they are, and Summer
responds that it does not matter as long as they are happy. They eventually
break up after Summer seems to be disinterested. Time goes by and Tom and
Summer reconnect at a wedding where she invites him to a party. Believing this
will rekindle their relationship, he goes only to find out she is engaged. He
becomes depressed for days where his sister tells him that he is depressed
because he has only been looking at the positive parts of their relationship and
not the bad. Tom recollects his life to pursue his dreams and possibly a girl
named Autumn.
This grabbed me when I saw it. Everything I had been taught
said that ultimately Tom and Summer would end up together. Yet they did not.
Summer was clear in the beginning that she did not believe in love and when
they broke up, he blamed her for it after she did not love him the way he loved
her. I did some reading about the themes of this movie and there was one that
really stood out to me. This movie is about life and how never giving up is a
lie.
Tom fights for Summer during their relationship. He pushes
hard for it to be successful. While he is reaching for the stars, Summer is
not. While I originally thought that this made her the bad guy, she was clear
that she was not looking for love. Tom never gives up though, which leads to a
massive fight and they break up. In other romantic comedies, the guy never
gives up and eventually it works out. 500 Days gives a different look. When we
are never giving up, we are missing other opportunities. For instance, Tom
works at a greeting card business, while he would rather be an architect.
Summer encourages him to pursue his dream, but he chooses not to. After
spending months of never giving up on Summer, he begins to apply for jobs as an
architect. He is chasing something that he is passionate about and while we
never learn if he eventually gets the job we do see that on day 500 we learn
that he as finally learned that never giving up is unrealistic and he needs to
learn to let go if it is not meant to be. Never giving up sounds good in
theory, but at what point do we need to learn to move from our original
expectation to what is reality and then how to make a new plan based on that.
Everyone has their own Summer. In my freshman year of
college, my Summer was to be married by my senior year. Two years and one bad
relationship later and I decided that it probably was not going to happen and
so I refocused. I have watched friends pursue the same job for years and get
rejected every time. Just like Tom’s friends told him to move on from Summer,
friends and I have told our own friends that maybe it is time to move on and
let go, but they declare that this is the right path for them. Maybe they are right,
and I am wrong.
500 Days of Summer is a unique movie. From musical numbers
to nonlinear story-telling, it draws me in every time. The performances are
incredible. Sometimes I wish that the cliffhanger of whether Tom got a job in
architecture had been answered or maybe what happens with Autumn. I think that
cliffhanger is good though. Instead of finding out whether Tom got the ending
he wanted, it challenges the viewer to ask if they are on track to get the
ending that they want. Have they been hung up on the same thing for too long? Are
they moving in the right direction to be on the path that will give them the
most for what they put in? This movie challenges the viewer to ask themselves
the question “What is my Summer and should I give up to pursue other things?”
Tom let Summer go and allowed himself to chase after his real dream. It took
500 days of Summer to realize this. How long will it take you?
