(500) Days of Summer

It's summer and I have a license. That translates into our Blockbuster card being put to very good use. I put a whole bunch of 80's teen movies on our Blockbuster list, and to expedite their arrival, I went and rented (500) Days of Summer to take it out of queue. I don't remember how it got on the list. I don't like dramatic boy meets girl movies very much, but I don't mind watching them. They just confirm my revulsion to romance, and I'm trying to get over the aversion, not validate it. However, I ended up liking this movie a lot more than I thought.



So there's this guy who really believes in love and soulmates and emotion (he writes greeting cards for a living) who meets this girl named Summer who does not believe in love, doesn't want a boyfriend, and is generally confused about the whole thing. This intrigued me because she reminded me of myself so much.

"What happens when you fall in love?"
"You don't really believe in that, do you?"
"It's love, it's not Santa Claus."

The movie follows their 500 days together out of order, skipping around to different days.

If you don't want to hear how it ends, DO NOT keep reading. I think everyone who cares about it saw it when it came out, but in case you missed it, here's your SPOILER ALERT. I really want to talk about it.

Summer tells him up front that she doesn't want a boyfriend or a serious relationship, but it goes along as if they really are together. In the beginning when she says love is fantasy, he says it's real but you don't know it until you feel it. She doesn't believe him, and they go through their whole "relationship" putting no label on it. He thinks she's giving him mixed signals when she tells him she wants to be friends but acts like his girlfriend.

In the end, she leaves and it destroys him. Very cliche, everyone saw that coming. He sees her again, spends some time with her, and finds out in a very abrupt way that she's engaged. Emotional pain redux.

After some more time, he sees her again in the park they used to go together. They talk, and he asks what makes her, the girl who never wanted a boyfriend, happily married? She says:

"I woke up one morning and I just knew"
"Knew what?"
"What I was never sure of with you."

She says "It was meant to be, and I just kept thinking Tom was right. But it wasn't just me you were right about." He quits his dead-end job because of her and pursues a career in architecture, which was always his dream. In the end, he meets another girl at a job interview, realizes Summer was right, and he moves on, having learned about life from his 500 days with her.

I LOVED that ending because it's real. I was expecting another sugar-coated ending where she realizes she loves him and they live happily ever after. I thought that was where this was going. I got so excited when it got closer to the 500th day and she was married to someone else.

I can relate to her in more ways than are appropriate to share on the Internet. It's not that I don't believe in love, but the whole concept makes me uncomfortable. I don't like romance and I don't like the idea of being in a committed relationship. People tell me that one day I will meet someone who will think like me and it will finally feel right. I wish I could find someone who thinks like me.

This movie really made me think. It is going on the list of really great romantic movies.