(500) Days of Summer (2009)

My takeaways are a little different over ten years later.

I remember when 500 Days of Summer first came out. Rom-coms have never been my favorite genre, so I had no desire to see it until my friend was complaining to me about the ending. She is a hopeless romantic and was so upset that Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) didn’t end up together. This, more than anything about the actual movie, has stuck with me through the years.

Even though the film makes it crystal clear from the outset that this is not a love story, people expect these characters to end up together.

I find this particularly interesting. So much of society points us to this idea that you have to be married (or, at the very least, in a relationship) to be happy or successful. We’ve been conditioned that a film with male and female leads will end up together in the end — but what if the happy ending is actually their separation? I love that 500 Days of Summer explores this idea. It still retains this hopefulness about people and life and love and passion without being overly cheesy.

I love the idea and style of the film and probably always will. If you put quirky characters (played by interesting actors) in a beautiful setting and force them to do something unexpected to make a point about society, I will likely enjoy the film. But…