One Swallow doesn't make a Summer!

Why do you like a movie? Is it because it makes you happy? Because it inspires you? Or because it moves you to tears? Sometimes it does all three. Yesterday I saw one such movie: ‘(500) Days of Summer’. I had heard quite a lot about it and so yesterday I finally got around seeing it. It started off just like all typical romantic love stories. Except that it isn’t one. It’s a story about a boy, Tom who believes in true love and in the notion of ‘the one’; and how he meets a girl Summer and falls hopelessly in love with her.

She is the kind of girl who doubts the concept of soul mates and marriage and love. All the same, they go out and stay happily together for about a year when one day she out of the blue tells him that she thinks they should stop this and continue being friends. This sudden and unexplained decision hurts him and he fails to understand why she would end something that was so perfect and happy.

He plunges into self-pity and depression until they meet at a friend’s party again. After she invites him to another party, he gets hopeful of getting back together again but is devastated to find out that she is engaged. He is completely shattered as all his fairytale illusions come crashing down. He quits his job and whiles away his time wallowing when one day his pre-adolescent sister tells him that he should look back on his relation again and he might realize that it wasn’t as perfect as he thinks it was. As he contemplates and relives all their moments spent together he comprehends that she was right. And that’s when he starts to focus on his career (he wanted to become an architect). Much later, he meets Summer again and she tells him that he was right about true love- it does exist. But it wasn’t what they had. Something about their relation did not seem right to her but she was sure about it when she was going to marry the other guy.

Later when he waits for an interview in a company, he meets another girl who he asks out for coffee. That girl’s name is Autumn! =)

The major reason why I liked the movie was because it wasn’t like other movies. It was different. The other typical movies mostly follow this pattern: boy and girl meet, they date, they fall in love, there is a misunderstanding, they separate, and they always patch up again! And I would have been very disappointed if the boy and girl had ended up together. You see because that’s what makes it so realistic! This is how things are in the real world. Sometimes even the ideal relations don’t work out.

I liked some things that Tom says in the movie. He says that all these mushy movies and pop songs and books and cards put up a very idealistic image in front of us. Things aren’t ever perfect. I can relate myself with Tom. Even I used to believe in perfect matches and ‘happily-ever-afters’. I guess that’s how we all are at some phase in our lives. And it’s when someone breaks out hearts or hurts us that we come out of the delusion. Maybe that’s an important part of life. Heartache. Pain. That’s how we learn, and grow.

He also questions ‘love’. Seriously, what is love? Can you define it?

What I feel is, that it is this phase in our lives, (and everybody goes through it), where you start adoring and obsessing over this one person, who makes you feel alive and contented! That’s also what the movie shows: how beautiful being in love can be. How blissful and euphoric someone’s presence in your life can make you feel. It’s like your whole world revolves around that person. You love everything about them. Life seems amazing! Like Tom says in the movie, “I love how she makes me feel, like anything's possible, or like life is worth it.”

Aww! It’s such an incredible feeling! I loved their chemistry in the movie, they looked so cute together! But according to me, Tom didn’t really fall in love with Summer, he just fell in love with the feeling of being in love. He thought that she was the perfect girl for her but then realizes that it wasn’t so flawless after all. I guess everyone goes through the troughs and ridges of relationships. Isn’t it startling sometimes how something that seems totally ‘meant-to-be’ later starts to seem absurd? This is how life is. C'est la vie! People change. Time passes. Old relationships are forgotten. New ones are made.

The movie also gives you hope. Instead of moping around after a break-up, maybe if we start ‘looking’ again, we might actually stumble across a person who we feel can be ‘the one’. It’s not the end of the world! Pick yourself up and brush yourself off, life can be beautiful again! It makes you feel so… positive. Again, it doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s like how Bob Marley said, “Truth is, everybody is going to hurt you; you’ve just got to find the ones worth suffering for.”

I didn’t really understand why Summer abruptly decides to leaves him and marries a guy who she hardly even knew. But then again, she must have had her reasons. Maybe sometimes you do feel that it’s meant to be. The scene where they meet for the last time got me so emotional. I was sniffing about. It was kind of heart-breaking. Sometimes you have no idea why things don’t work out. And it hurts even more because you can’t get it. But then maybe that’s because you don’t see the big picture. At that time, you’re so morose and grieved of losing someone you love so much, that you don’t even realize that something even better might be in store for you. When one door closes, another door opens!

All said and done, I was glad the movie ended at a positive note. He finally crawled out of his despondent shell and found another girl. Maybe he fell in love with her again. Maybe she broke his heart again. Or maybe they ended up together. Who knows?

Hmpf. Love is stupid. Yet people run after it. I read this somewhere “Love is like dark chocolate. Although it always leaves you with a bitter taste in your mouth, you will still be tempted to take a bite the next time around.” It’s like something totally irresistible. As they say, love is what makes the world go round!

P.S.- Another reason to watch the movie: Joseph Gordon Levitt is CUTE! ;)