Why this movie?

My definition of a great film is one that people argue about for years after, and this is one of those films. The first criticism of 500 Days of Summer I heard was how it was meant to slam the idealization of “manic pixie dream girls” (a stereotype also depicted in the book & movie “Paper Towns” by John Green, BTW).

Zooey Deschanel plays the ultimate beautiful and completely carefree, wildly unpredictable, and “so detached you’ll never get her to stay” trophy (the girl named Summer) that Joseph Gordon-Levitt’s character (named Tom) spends the entire film pursuing.

Many people were in the camp of hating the character of Summer and accused her of being a cold and manipulative bitch, basically. They claimed she was also superficial and two-dimensional. (While I see that, it’s also missing the point that she comes over that way because the film is shot from Tom’s POV, so we see her as HE sees her, not as she actually was.)

Other people hate Tom and claim that he is in fact the villain for believing himself as entitled to disregard Summer’s insistence that she “doesn’t believe in true love” because he can change her mind. As if his feelings are more important or valid than hers. In other words, believing delusionally that Summer is more of a prize to be won than an actual person who is NOT perfect and who has other wants and desires of her own beyond him. And yeah, that’s a fair assessment too.

Then another camp of people insists that there are no heroes nor villains in this film. That it’s more of a tragedy with majorly flawed characters all around.

So you see, like great art, what you see in this film is what YOU want to see, which is also in my opinion, the biggest theme of the entire movie.

1. First I’ll get into the plot

2. Then we’ll look at the highlights of why this story hits hard

3. And I’ll show you the 6 phases Tom goes through (that I’ve gone through) with my breakup and revisiting of my novel in revisions

   This post is my once-a-month reflection/tips on the writing process, for the Novelist Uncensored section of my Substack. Paid subscribers get full access to ALL of my posts & my Sci-Fi comedy series (free subscribers get sneak peaks and all book battles votes & book reviews). Get more by subscribing:

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