Happy Autumn: A Revisiting of "500 Days of Summer"

As summer is officially over and fall is here, I'd like to revisit a romantic comedy that seems to stay relevant every autumn. 500 Days of Summer came out in July 2009 and has stayed a classic for many viewers. Personally, I had never seen the appeal of the film. But as years pass and people change, I am beginning to see how this movie may be relatable at many times in someone's life. Through joy and heartbreak, I'll discuss what 500 Days of Summer can tell us about modern relationships as we enter a new season.

Breakups suck. We know this. Some of the most famous art we love comes from heartbreak, but there are also movies that find that magical balance between love and eventual heartbreak. They perfectly portray the anxious unknown feelings you have when you're deciding if someone should be your next obsession or remain a stranger. That's where 500 Days of Summer lives.

"This is a story of boy meets girl. But you should know up front, this is not a love story."

The narrator presents us immediately with the honest core of the story as he introduces the two main characters, Tom Hansen and Summer Finn, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel. Hey, this film never lied about what it was.

There are some people who swear by heartbreaking rom-coms as lovely classics that can be rewatched for years and years, but this movie is a testament to stability in one's own character. Even through seasons past and love lost. In a way, it is not a romantic comedy but a warning about the potential consequences of losing oneself in someone else.

I have returned numerous times to a Substack post by Amanda Brown titled "The People We Don't End Up With". The post adds to this discourse of back and forth between Tom and Summer, as if there is a winning side. She describes the movie as the "litmus test for potential boyfriends" before taking on the larger question of who is in the wrong, Summer or Tom. Brown writes:

"The film depicts two flawed individuals who want fundamentally different things... It’s about misalignment—expectations versus reality."

In the end, she is correct. There is nothing inherently wrong with Tom or Summer's behaviors; they are just in different emotional stages in their lives.

Coming into this summer, I assumed that a person was never to be the Tom Hansen of a relationship, the lover with energy to spare. Then, after being told I was acting like a "Tom Hansen" during a break-up, I realized... being a Tom Hansen is sometimes inevitable. Hansen was always horribly easy to relate to as an anxious person who is stuck between passion and reality. Hansen, who dreams of being an architect but works at a greeting card store, which is where he meets Summer. It's in an elevator, with the following iconic lines, that the relationship begins.

"The Smiths."

"Sorry?"

"I love the Smiths. You have good taste in music."

From the jump, this dialogue solidifies the viewers' opinions of Summer as an outgoing, cool girl. She leaves Tom shocked, to the point that he audibly says, "Holy shit."

This conversation begins a 500-day relationship between the two, but the dynamic of their relationship stays pretty steady throughout. Tom is the lover, and Summer is the muse.

At the beginning of their relationship, Summer brings an exciting new energy into Tom's world, as seen in a black-and-white sequence of Summer. The scene, at its core, caters to a male gaze and focuses on Summer's physical attractiveness. However, we can easily understand that Summer is an energetic and beautiful person beyond what she looks like. But this narrated scene makes it seem as though fate has brought Summer and Tom together. And maybe it did. But their clashing personalities tug on that too-popular phrase, "opposites attract."

Often in relationships, like Tom and Summer's, one partner can lose themself in another. In a healthy relationship, this push and pull would foster communication and growth on both sides. When it doesn't? The passion can fizzle out. It's at this point some of us start to try a little harder than we'd like to admit to keep love in our life.

Summer's protective energy of her own character is something that the average woman strives for. In a male-dominated society, it's hard to be a Summer. Sometimes it's nice to have a Tom. Someone who can love blindly through conflict. As the seasons pass and the leaves change, Tom and Summer's relationship changes, and Tom begins to rely heavily on the idea of Summer instead of the reality of her: she is pulling away.

In a world that seems to be saturated with decisions and permanence, the thought that a person can come into your life but not be in it forever is hard to grapple with. As I said, I originally thought that Tom's behavior signified a weakness, as there are many moments in the movie where Tom does not see Summer pulling away. He's oblivious. But after further deliberation, I have decided there has to be a Tom. Without the blindly optimistic lover, there can be no impulsive emotions, no creativity. There are aspects of both characters that one can strive for. In actuality, Tom Hansen and Summer's combined traits are what make them ideal partners. But they would not have known that if they did not go through their 500-day relationship.

As we are officially in autumn, a rewatch of the cynical romantic comedy could be helpful to reevaluate the relationships that we keep in our lives, and why we choose to hold onto them. A summer can be great for a career, but with someone else, you might find what you truly need.

It is tough (damn near impossible) to accept that someone can come into your life for a brief stint and decide not to stay forever. And though it's weird to admit, people do come and go, and Tom Hansen moves on with his life. He goes on to interview for new jobs, working towards new career goals that Summer motivated him to pursue. Tom enters this new chapter alone, as we all sometimes must do in order to come back to ourselves.

Well, until he meets Autumn...