(500) Days of Summer

Now, this movie wasn’t on my list before I picked it up and watched it. Is it something most people have seen? Possibly. Am I going to occasionally watch and reviews movies that aren’t on the list and maybe aren’t so commonly watched? You bet! I know what my main purpose for this blog is, but the way I see it, I might as well review other things I watch even if they don’t strictly fall into the group of movies that elicit “You’ve never seen what?” when I admit I haven’t seen them.

I’ll be honest: I spent most of the movie expecting Summer’s ring to be from Tom. Some time during their last scene, I realized it wasn’t. Should I have realized it earlier? Even as things got rockier, I kept hoping we’d jump to scenes where everything improved and led up to the ring. Was I supposed to be “tricked” and assume as I did and forget about it and realize later? Who knows. But I was disappointed when I realized there was no way that ring could be what I hoped it was. I should have seen it coming that they didn’t end up together. I mean, it was “500 days” of Summer, not “eternal” Summer or “until death do us part” Summer. And we were told that it wasn’t a love story. Yes, I probably should have known it wasn’t going to happen. I’m just secretly a hopeless romantic.

During Tom and Summer’s last scene, I honestly thought I would be disappointed in how the movie would end. After all, I’d been rooting for them the whole time. I thought she ended up with his ring on her finger! And they just seemed to make sense together. Now, it’d be one thing if Summer was having fun with the single life. But our anti-boyfriend gal had turned into a married lady. And remember the time span of this movie is, obviously, only 500 days—and she knew her husband for less than half of that time. What gives, Summer? I don’t know if I buy that it just felt right to her. That’s such a change. So I’m still out on my final verdict on Summer. Of course, maybe I was just having difficulty accepting that a well-dressed, intelligent Joseph Gordon-Levitt character could possibly not end up with the one he thought was his dream girl. But I am happy for Tom. I guess if he’s over Summer and ready to move on, then I’m ready to see him with someone else. (You know, if it makes sense for me to have to approve of fictional characters moving on with their lives.) And naming the new girl (see what I did there? Zooey Deschanel is the new girl in New Girl?) Autumn? Maybe I should have expected it, maybe not. I didn’t, so I thought it was smart. And I like to think it’s going to work out.

Even if I had been more prepared for the ending, I think I still would have enjoyed watching them fall in love. I always enjoy that, when it’s believable and real, which I think this was. Pretending the rooms in IKEA are your home, keeping up a running joke about something inconsequential like Ringo being someone’s favorite Beatle, showing someone your favorite spot… that’s how you fall in love. (Said the young woman who’s pretty sure she’s never done that.) If it’s not, then whatever it was was still a process I enjoyed watching.

I enjoyed that the story was told non-chronologically . I like when I know things that are coming but I don’t know how it gets there. Or I like thinking something is coming and then seeing how it doesn’t. Here’s something interesting (to me, anyway): I only like that when it’s meant to be that way. I would never read the last page of a book first. It’s just not set up to be told that way. There’s a reason it’s the last page. But as an intentional storytelling device, that’s great. (Here’s where I recommend The Time Traveler’s Wife, and I mean the book, as I have not watched the movie, and have heard from one book fan that it was disappointing. But that’s a post for another time, after I’ve watched and formed my own opinion. Back to the movie at hand.)

And I liked that we were told exactly where we were in time. Could I have figured out when events occurred in relation to each other without being told? Most likely. Did I like knowing how many days elapsed between events and where we were out in the grand scheme of 500? Yes. I mean, you wouldn’t put 500 in the title if you weren’t going to make it actually meaningful and relevant, right? Right. I wouldn’t, anyway. Maybe I’m just a creep who likes to keep close tabs on the day by day development of fictional characters’ relationships. Or a nerd. Psh, labels.

As for Rachel, I’d like to know more about her. Why does she confidently spout relationship advice? I’m not convinced that realistic for a girl her age, but maybe I’m not supposed to be. And maybe that was just my experience. Regardless, it’s pretty adorable.

That’s all from me. I’m gonna go check my bathroom to make sure it’s clear of Chinese families.