(500) Days of Summer

One of my favorite movies, and definitely my favorite movie showed in class, is 500 Days of Summer.  Romantic and quirky in every way possible, 500 Days of Summer follows the story of Tom Hansen and his 500 day “relationship” with Summer Finn.  When Tom first sees Summer, he thinks it is love at first sight.  Summer doesn’t believe in love, however Tom tries to get through that thick exterior and get Summer to love him just as much as he cares about her.  As the narrator says in the opening monologue, “This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story.”

My favorite thing about 500 Days of Summer is the script.  The story moves along in a way that is very unique and it’s not in chronological order, which gives it an interesting dynamic. The script is also very realistic.  I think the problem with a lot of romantic comedies in today’s film industry is that they try to hard to be something that is the perfect relationship. 500 Days of Summer tells you straight up that this relationship is not going to end up the way that most do.

The director portrays this really well in a scene where Tom and Summer are at a party together and we see a split screen between Tom’s expectation and his reality.  The expectation side is what audiences want to see happen, what Tom wants to see happen.  However, this is not a typical romance and everyone is not going to get what they want so we see the reality of the situation.