(500) Days of Summer... again

Sunday, August 16, 2009

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Warning this reflection of the film contains spoilers.

So I went to see (500) Days of Summer again because I recommended it to a friend who had a recent bad break-up, and he was dying to see it so I went with him to watch this amazing film again. I will tell you now, for a second viewing of the film I was amazed again! I still felt the magic of the film as I felt it the first time I watched it, and the film to a certain degree got even better. Watching it for a second time I was able to appreciate other things that I didn't noticed the first time around. In this second viewing I really felt sympathetic for Summer. In the first viewing I thought Summer was rather cold-hearted, but in the second time I realized Summer is human being too with feelings and emotions. Even though Summer was much more closed than Tom was, she was in a relationship too, and she also felt heartbreak. It wasn't easy for Summer to break it off with Tom, but, unlike Tom, she followed her intuition and was honest to herself about the way she felt about Tom. Summer at 300th or so day started to feel that she truly didn't love Tom, the feeling between her and Tom was dwindling. Tom's break-up was so hard because he was resting on a fantasy, but more so he was constantly thinking about lack. He thought about the lack of love Summer was showing, he thought about the lack of consistency in the relationship, he thought of the lack of women out there besides Summer that he could connect with. Tom constantly had negative thoughts running through his mind. As the narrator said, Tom's mode of thinking was similar to sad 80's British pop music, he lived in world where there was heartbreak, where love is a rare thing, and that one really has to fight for it to win it. This way of thinking really hurt Tom and really hurt his relationship with Summer. Summer during the relationship was having fun, taking it casual and slow, meanwhile Tom was panicking that he was going to lose Summer. Tom felt as though he had to be in an official relationship with her, in order to guarantee no heartbreak. At one point in the film Tom says "I just want consistency" and Summer replies "You know I can't give you that, only you can". Summer was completely correct, Tom was looking for the love of Summer in order to feel true happiness but that isn't the way. One has to be happy, and you have to love yourself in order to give love to others. Of course nonetheless, Summer and Tom weren't meant to be with each other, but they were meant to have a short-lived relationship. Both Tom and Summer learned so much from that relationship they had together. Summer found someone who she truly loved by first learning about Tom's philosophy on love. Tom ended up pursing architecture and also finding someone else all due to Summer.

It's not a love story, but it is a story about love. We all go through these moments in our lives that we rest all our happiness on one person, but that only leads to feeling empty and unsatisfied, no one can give you the happiness that you truly want, you have to be happy on your own in order to live happy. You have to love yourself in order to love others. Tom at the end start appreciating and loving himself because he pursued architecture and that's how he was able to meet Autumn. (500) Days of Summer is a therapeutic film teaching about love, the destructive power of negative thoughts, and a very important lesson that love is always out there and there is an abundance of love to be given and received, one just has to be patient and let it come to you naturally.

2 comments:

Marielle said...

i hate you cuz you saw it twice :P lol

ProphetZen said...

lol don't be jealous. I'm even tempted to watch it a third time. XP