500 Days of Summer (2009)

How I Found It

This one is a major. I had heard a lot of it before. Remember watching bits of it. A full watch was due. Coincidentally, it was recommended to me by internet alongside The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. I didn’t feel like watching it that day. Free today, 500 Days of Summer it is.

A Glimpse

The movie begins with a man and a woman (a girl and a boy as the narrator says) sitting on a bench in a park, looking at the majestic buildings. They have kept palm-on-palm. And then a baritone starts with the story. That’s all the spoilers you get.

The storytelling reminds me of Arundhati Roy (from a humanities course in college). It flip-flops from end to start to middle. It’s arranged beautifully as different chapters, each marked by a nice doodle of the day number.

The movie is backed by pop-folk-rock music, subtle music which fits the situations well. It’s a storytelling masterpiece.

The theme is realistic romance/ heartbreak. It aims to portray how a hopeless romantic deals with love and heartbreak vis-a-vis a normal non-hopeless romantic person.

Interpretation

It’s a very very realistic story. This is what happens in life. People do what is right for them, and you have to figure out what’s right for you. It’s a free world. Not worth it to attach all your life and importance to a single thing/person. Change is the only constant in life.

Do what makes you happy and be free.

If Tom had learned anything, it was that you can’t ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that’s all anything ever is, nothing more than a coincidence. Tom had finally learned there are no miracles. There’s no such thing as fate. Nothing is meant to be. He knew; he was sure of it now.

— The Narrator