(500) Days of Summer
A girl who doesn't believe true love exists... and a boy who falls for her... this is not a love story, yet an offbeat story about love. It's about a phase in a boy's life, the first 250 days of which make his world beautiful and the next 250 makes it messy, all because of a girl, Summer Finn. That's 500 Days of Summer for you!
Tom and Summer work in the same office, get along well and eventually become great friends. Summer finds Tom interesting. She sees him, likes him but doesn't want to get into a relationship with him. However, Tom believes she is the only one in the entire universe who could make him happy. He knows anything is possible but thinks his life is worth it.
Shuttling between the first and the second half of Tom's 500 days with Summer (by numbering them for the viewer), the director glides you through the story with a non-linear screenplay which makes the well-handled script quite appealing. For instance, the scene that opens with 'Day 290' when Summer says that they should stop seeing each other, is quite contrastingly followed by 'Day 1' when Tom and Summer get acquainted with each other over their mutual love of a music album.
Even after Summer declares that nothing could happen between them, Tom finds it impossible to forget her. Though his friends want him to get over it, his undying love for Summer rather makes him get back at it and every time he tries that, she repudiates saying she's been in relationships and hasn't seen love in it and that she doesn't believe in love. 500 days... is all about how life turns out to be when people who are at such different extremities of ideologies of love come closer.
Another scene that deserves mention is when Tom goes to a party hoping to convince Summer about their relationship. The scene comes to you as a split shot, showing Tom's expectations on one side and the actual results at the party on the other. One finds it both enjoyable and pitiable as things end up differently for Tom at the party, especially the reaction he expects from Summer and what he actually gets when he presents her a book. It's classy as the scene ends with the 'reality' frame setting over the 'expectations' frame as he sees her engagement ring.
The movie also throws light on how the corporate of today influences the culture and lifestyle of society. We are subtly hinted at it when Tom, working in a greeting card company, gets fed up with his job and walks out saying, "Let's not frame words for people... let them mean it..."
Ultimately, it's the climax that is the heart of the movie. On 'Day 488', Tom and Summer meet at their favorite rendezvous point (the place is a character in itself) where they have an exchange over her decision on their 'relationship', which portrays how true love often goes underrated.
Most days don't have an impact on the course of our life except some, like the day Tom meets Summer which changes rest of his life, leaving a deep scar on his mind and heart. The climax is just awesome and so beautifully thought out and it's not the '488th Day' meeting between Tom and Summer but the actual climax comes after that. Watch it to love it!
"The lady doth protest too much, methinks." - Shakespeare (Hamlet)
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