500 Days Of Summer time is a romantic comedy from 2009 starring Zooey Deschanel as Summer time and Joseph Gordan-Levitt as Tom, a sort-of “couple” who meet whereas working at a greeting card firm in New York Metropolis.
Summer time is simply on the lookout for an informal association however that doesn’t cease Tom from imagining in a different way and falling in love anyway.
500 Days Of Summer time is hilarious and poignant, however largely it’s a pretty reasonable portrait of what occurs when expectations don’t meet actuality. However largely, it reveals the inevitable heartbreak that happens when somebody falls in love with an thought, ignores the warning indicators, and isn’t true to their coronary heart.
500 Days Of Summer time can be nonetheless extremely related in 2024. As such, here are seven classes from 500 Days Of Summer time that also maintain up at this time.
1. Be trustworthy about what you need. Each with the opposite particular person and your self.
Should you don’t need informal, don’t say you’re cool with going with the movement.
Whereas enjoying home, making out, and flirting at IKEA, Summer time tells Tom she isn’t on the lookout for something critical. In different phrases, she doesn’t desire a relationship. (With him.) Tom agrees and says that’s cool with him.
Spoiler alert: It wasn’t. However Tom tries to persuade himself in any other case all the identical. At one level, when Tom’s greatest pals McKenzie and Paul ask what Tom and Summer time are label-wise, Tom scoffs, insisting that labels are juvenile and that is the best way of recent relationship. His pals look on skeptically, they usually’re proper to take action. In spite of everything, Tom is an authorized hopeless romantic who believes in soulmates and that he’ll by no means really be completely happy till he finds “The One.” And this solely turns into increasingly more obvious because the movie goes on. As a result of Tom does need a relationship; a relationship with Summer time. Not informal. Not one thing situationship-y. A full-fledged, dedicated relationship.
Spoiler alert two: It by no means occurs.
On that notice…
2. If somebody says they don’t desire a relationship, consider them.
Whereas Summer time does lead Tom on at instances all through the film, the reality of the matter is that she did totally and adamantly talk that she was not on the lookout for a relationship. She needed to have enjoyable, and Tom was enjoyable! They’d rather a lot in widespread, from their love of unhappy British music like The Smiths to obscure films and extra. Nevertheless, Tom took these mutual pursuits and chemistry as indicators of compatibility, ignoring Summer time’s clear message that she was not involved in pursuing a relationship with him. In different phrases, he refused to consider what she was saying and ascribed alternate meanings to her phrases. That perhaps she simply wanted time to let her partitions down and let him in.
3. Your expectations will break your coronary heart greater than the rest.
One of the crucial highly effective and beautifully-shot moments is the side-by-side depiction of the misalignment that always performs out between our expectations and actuality.
Summer time and Tom had already been damaged up for a while however had run into each other at a mutual pal’s wedding ceremony. The 2 bonded, danced, and drank collectively. It (virtually) appeared as if issues hadn’t modified a lot. They undoubtedly hadn’t for Tom, not less than.
A while sooner or later, Summer time invitations Tom to her house for a celebration. Because the narrator states, “Tom walked to her house, intoxicated by the promise of the night. He believed that this time, his expectations would align with actuality.”
Every shot within the phase reveals this was not the case in any respect. The truth is, Tom runs out of the occasion as soon as he sees Summer time has an engagement ring on her finger. She fell in love with another person.
4. Love received’t prevent.
Tom grew up believing that he’d by no means really be completely happy till he discovered “The One,” which may be a part of the rationale he put a lot strain on having issues work out with Summer time. At one level, he even admits that his emotions for Summer time make him really feel like life is value dwelling.
The reality of the matter is love won’t prevent. This isn’t to say it’s good to be completely healed with a view to discover it, although. However you not less than should be making an attempt to get your self and life collectively earlier than you share it with another person.
5. Therapeutic from heartbreak takes time.
Typically, a lot of time. And the method isn’t linear both. The truth is, 500 Days Of Summer time is even filmed out of order for instance this. The film jumps from varied deadlines to indicate the juxtaposition of when Tom was in love with Summer time, therapeutic from Summer time, and finally transferring on from Summer time.
6. Illusions will at all times disintegrate finally.
All through the non-linear movie, we’re proven flashbacks of Tom’s perspective of his romance with Summer time. Initially, the whole lot in his thoughts’s eye appears romantic and promising. Nevertheless, in direction of the tip of the film, after Tom’s little sister encourages him to look backward at his love affair with Summer time in a extra reasonable lens, the rose-colored glasses fall off and we see the complete image: Summer time was not involved in him in the identical approach he was in her. And there have been loads of indicators that confirmed this.
7. You could love somebody for who they really are (not for who you suppose they’re).
Most likely the largest takeaway from 500 Days Of Summer time is the risks of falling in love with the concept of somebody, and never who they really are. Tom positioned Summer time on a pedestal, hopelessly pining after her as a result of he felt that there would by no means be anybody else who he may presumably love the best way he liked her. And he may be proper, however solely as a result of he constructed who he thought she was, not embracing who she really was. Certain, the Summer time he made up could have been his dream lady, however it’s important to get up from desires finally, proper? As Tom’s Paul places it about his associate, Robyn:
“Robyn’s higher than the lady of my desires. She’s actual.”