I had put this one off for quite a while because I already had too much information about the movie. It’s referenced a lot in essays about film and I kept pushing it down on my list because I wasn’t ready to sit down for an hour with a protagonist I knew I wouldn’t like—a guy I would consider to be an extremely irritating Ted Mosby variant.

But! I’ve been taking my list mostly in alphabetical order, so when it came time to watch a movie, I decided to bite the bullet, and you know what, I enjoyed it more than I’d expected. For those who haven’t seen it, 500 Days of Summer is about what the kids like to call “a situationship.” Two young people who are attracted to each other but want vastly different things begin a casual relationship that leaves both dissatisfied and yet, better off.

Our lovers would be Tom—the Ted Mosby stand-in, a young man who works at a greeting card company even though he studied architecture, believes in “The One,” and seems to base a good chunk of soulmate-hood on simply liking the same stuff—and the titular Summer. Summer is new in town, seems to only own blue dresses, and absolutely does NOT believe in love or have any interest in being in a relationship. When Tom finds out that Summer likes the same band as him, he becomes infatuated with her, and their story begins.

500 Days of Summer dances around the timeline, jumping back and forth and putting together the events of the story like a puzzle. The use of color in the film is done with an artist’s hand, adding so much more context to each scene through visuals alone. I would say one of the main lessons of the film is that life is not a movie, and the people you meet belong to themselves and are not characters in your story. And, if we take a lesson from the poly community; openly communicating your expectations when entering a relationship is extremely important. Summer does this. Tom does not.

Rating: 💿 I liked this movie.