(500) Days of Summer - What's the big deal? Part 1

Most people are aware of my 'obsession' with 500 Days of Summer, but many probably don't know the reasons behind it. This is why I love the movie:

Summer

Ok, beside being played by the amazingly adorable Zooey Deschanel, Summer is actually a very intriguing character. Unfortunately, as the movie is set from Tom's perspective, not much is directly revealed about her and in order to try to understand her, you need to look careful at the fine details put to reflect her character. First, Summer is clearly an independent free-spirit:

"You don’t believe that a woman could enjoy being free and independent?" 

She was not looking to be comforted, to be held, or to be supported by a man, as traditionally has been the case with most women (apology for stereotyping). Her actions, especially in the IKEA, karaoke and "penis" game in the park scenes, show how cheery and carefree she is, not afraid of enjoying herself, having fun and bending rules. Though the movie also revealed the other side of her:

"I just, don’t feel comfortable being anyone’s girlfriend. I don’t actually feel comfortable being anyone’s anything."

"I, like being on my own. I think relationships are messy and people’s feelings get hurt. Who needs it? We’re young, we live in one of the most beautiful cities in the world; might as well have fun while we can and, save the serious stuff for later."

These phrases gave hints that Summer is not looking for a relationship because she was afraid and feared that all it can bring is hurt. As the opening scene told us about Summer's childhood:

"Since the disintegration of her parents' marriage she'd only loved two things. The first was her long dark hair. The second was how easily she could cut it off and not feel a thing"

Summer's fear of commitment is likely caused by her childhood, where her parents' divorce might have traumatised her. We also learnt that Summer has been involved in several relationships when she was younger, yet she claimed that she has never seen "love" in any of them. "[She was]not even sure what that word means." This brings up the second point, at Summer is very fragile and has chose to protect herself by building a shell around herself.

There are other things small things that gave clues about Summer's personality. Her recreation of Magritte's Son of Man on her coffee table:

Of which, Magritte said:

At least it hides the face partly. Well, so you have the apparent face, the apple, hiding the visible but hidden, the face of the person. It's something that happens constantly. Everything we see hides another thing, we always want to see what is hidden by what we see. There is an interest in that which is hidden and which the visible does not show us. This interest can take the form of a quite intense feeling, a sort of conflict, one might say, between the visible that is hidden and the visible that is present.

Magritte's paiting fits perfectly with the portrayal of Summer as a much deeper character compares to what she may look or act from the outside. Ringo Starr being her favourite Beatles' member and liking him because "nobody loves Ringo Starr" show how she doesn't conform to society, in fact it even suggests that she enjoys being different and cherishes it, as evident from her unorthodox apartment decorations, featuring a frame with Voodoo dolls, flower paintings, paper cranes, and various vintage trinkets. Her choice of books, such as The Picture of Dorian Gray, which she was reading before meeting her future husband, suggests some sort of associations between her and the characters from Dorian Gray. Was she reading it to reflect on Basil Hayward, as the voice of reason, Lord Henry, as the voice of all thing worldly, or on Dorian Gray himself, as the vain and confused main character who lived a double life?

Summer is definitely a real and believable character. She does not always appear cheery and happy, but shows her emotional self: when she cried after watching "The Graduates," the bedroom scene where she told Tom about her strange dreams. She also grew and developed throughout the movie. Starting off as a very shelled individual, hiding her feelings behind a wall that Tom eventually managed to bring down, until she found her 'one' and ended up marrying him. Near the end of the movie, in one of her scenes with Tom, she even admitted how "Tom was right."


To be continued....