500 Days of Summer: Relationships are a part of the jigsaw and not the entire puzzle
Doomed Romantic movies is something that I have always loved to watch for the simple reason that they are more close to reality and are not merely a figment of the imagination of Director but infact are a manifestation of naked truth that surrounds us in Life.
This movie had some of the best screenplay and cinematography where each scene and frame had an intellectual logic and reasoning behind it and for any movie buff, its such a treat to see frame being utilised to the fullest
The movie is about a boy and a girl who fall in love, but isn’t a love story altogether and that’s the best part about the movie.
Characters
Tom Hanks is an intellectually somewhat lazy golden boy who works at a copywriting office but is good at architecture but doesn’t pursue it. Summer is a beautifully dreamy girl with blue eyes and a bright smile that can woo anyone in a second.
Tom’s character is more of a boy who has dreamy concepts of love, fate and “the one” In relationships. He plays the role of a nice boy who feels that just because he is nice, is better than his douche friends and feels superior, that he is entitled to be loved and wanted and reciprocated with passion and being desired and feels dejected when he doesn’t receive that. Basically he had a victim mentality who was seeking an validation from the outside society via seeking love from someone and expecting it to be unconditional.
Summer is a women who can make any man fall for her. While watching the movie, you might feel that she is selfish but infact she is a very intelligent lady who gave Tom many chances to revive himself and become a man & from the cocoon that he had made for himself. As a character, she is a talented lady who has many arcs and has the potential to impart a lot as a partner.
The movie progresses from the viewpoint of Tom throughout, as a result of which you will often feel that the frame that Summer or any other character is shown in the movie is from the lens of Tom only. Each and every frame in which Summer is shown is extra beautiful and imaginary because that’s how Tom perceived her in her brain. The frame with his boss is often crude because he thinks his boss is a douche and an idiot. The frame with his friends couldn’t progress more than loyal jerk friends as he thinks of them that way. The whole movie (except the end) progresses from his own lens-even when Summer showed him her vulnerabilities, he accredited that to his own being.
It was only at the end of the movie that he wished for the happiness of Summer and that’s the only time in the movie where he has “feelings of others” and discovers the concept of “empathy”. Thats is when we see Tom actually growing up as a character.
Plot
During the entire movie, you will notice that Tom was so much delusional and immersed in his “Me” that he failed to understand and evolve to what Summer looked for in a guy.
Infact when you start looking at movie in a very objective sense, you will realise that Summer was not anti hero, but in fact the real hero in the movie who gave Tom enough chances and opportunities to man up for himself but his comforts and inertia and his constant neediness didn’t allow him to stand up for himself until Summer left him.
It was only when Summer left him that he discovered himself and was able to evolve from a boy into a Man.
The movie entails a very important concept of love
Cinematography
The movie’s cinematographer has kept a close look at the colours that were used for the main characters. Tom who is has a knack for architecture, is dull lazy has everything in brown while summer who is a bit different than Tom, is lively and beautiful, has everything in green and blue-the colours of summer. The depiction of the movie in the frame of days and every frame changing according to the mood of Tom is mesmerising and riveting to watch.
Even the frames via which Summer starts to loose interest in Tom is also interesting because you could actually feel the fire in partners dying out and it was brought out really well.
Concept
I have often failed to understand the concept of love and relationships and how the things are. Why some things work out so well, while some just crash out like one in the dustbin.
Why some people are able to make it workout, while some just CANT
I think this movie just gives a glimpse of that “WHY”.
The humans are different from other beings on the planet in the sense that we are accustomed to movement and growth. Evolution and change are infact the only constant in this every evolving cosmic space for humans.
In a world where we can find So called “Love” just by sliding into someone’s DM or right or left swiping someone, the eventual simmering off of those hormones is going to happen sooner or later because relationships are just more than a fluids running into our body. Relationships seek much more that. They are a responsibility where two individuals have to constantly evolve and develop everyday where they can give for whatever they derive from the other human being.
Tom in our case, was intellectually lazy being. He just tried to receive everything from Summer what he didn’t had while contributing very little from his side. Tom started projecting his insecurities upon Summer. When the emotions started drying off from Summer’s life about this golden boy, she tried to seek more. We see in the movie that Summer was fun loving girl who was able to give more shades of her, but our golden boy was running out of hue very soon because of single boring tonality of his personality which he just refused to enhance.
Thats is how every relationship starts crashing down. When one partner gets so much invested in another partner that their solar system of life start revolving around that person and become oblivious of their own personal development-the character arc of individuals change. While one partner seeks validations for the time that they have invested in the relationship while forgetting themselves in the process, the other partner who has developed a bigger arc now, gets bored of the other one who is just standing at the starting point.
This difference in journey in the same time lapse makes the difference in the lives of two beings and perhaps why relationships don’t work out.
It is important to realise that relationship is one part of the jig saw puzzle and is not the whole jig saw puzzle.
Link of the trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsD0NpFSADM
Follow me on: http://instagram.com/nikspeaks_cinema/
Like my work, Buy Me a Coffee: https://www.buymeacoffee.com/nikspeaks
