500 Days of Summer

By Ephraim Belnap

I see what all the fuss was about. 

This is probably gonna be a shorter review, ‘cause I don’t have much to say about the film’s quality. It’s clearly good and clearly liked. 

I've decided that I don't really like this kind of film, because it's really all about rarefied first-world problems of man- and woman-children, and if I want to see those, I can just go outside. I suppose there's a value in these in that they portray certain emotional crises.

I definitely agree with the popular take - probably the biggest message the film has perpetuated - that Tom is inconsiderate to treat her like a girlfriend when she says she doesn’t want to be. But I’m surprised by how much of that is her own fault. As an adult, it's blindingly obvious to see that she really does kind of love him, and that's why she goes for all of these coupley expressions but freezes up when the possibility of more comes up. It's not that she only wants it to be physical, it's that she wants it to be more, she just is messed up from her parents' divorce and doesn't have the guts to take the plunge and try it out. The fact that she gets married so quickly to the next guy she meets is a testament to the fact that she knew Tom was a good prospect and feels guilty about not committing to him. She dives in with the next guy 'cause she wants to make up for being flaky. 

General Pro-Tip - If anyone says they don’t believe in love, they’re full of crap. The world has millions of people. You telling me not a single person is in a happy relationship? Someone saying that is clearly still maturing and just needs time to figure it out.