'(500) Days of Summer' Still Sucks

A lot of people seem to love the film (500) Days of Summer. It’s known for its twee soundtrack (The Pixies! The Doves! Regina Spektor!); its inversion of romantic comedy stereotypes (“This is a story of boy meets girl, but this is not a love story,” so begins the narrator); its characterisation (haven’t we all, at some point, been heartbroken by a Summer Finn?). In the ten years since its UK release, (500) Days of Summer – which currently holds an 85 percent audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes – has become a sort of indie classic. It’s apparently up there with Garden State and Her and all the other films that made straight boys everywhere think their brief interaction with a “quirky” girl was profoundly poetic, a life-altering experience, so shaken were they by the fact she’d heard of The Smiths.

But unlike other films that came out in 2009 – Jennifer’s Body, He’s Just Not That Into You, Paranormal Activity – its flaws have not marinated over the years to form something cultish and quotable. Instead they’re made more potent, maybe even duller, with time. We’re given a lead character (Tom, played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who repeatedly idealises, blames and struggles to control his casual lover (Summer, played by Zooey Deschanel). Summer, in turn, is given no room to be seen as a whole, nuanced person. Instead she appears as an almost glazy-eyed mirage in a blue dress, experienced only through Tom’s eyes, none of her unknowable blanks coloured-in or explained. On a recent rewatch, this film hasn't aged well.

I’m not the only person who thinks this. Perspectives around the film have always been divisive and discourse-heavy. Speaking to Playboy in 2012, even Gordon-Levitt admitted he didn't like his character. “He develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies,” he remembered. “He thinks she’ll give his life meaning because he doesn’t care about much else going on in his life… That’s not healthy. That’s falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person.” Others, too, have criticised the film's incorporation of the 'Manic Pixie Dream Girl' trope, in which the MPDG (in this case Summer) exists solely for one purpose: to teach the brooding, man-child protagonist (in this case Tom) how to embrace life in all of its infinite, sparkling colour – even though she ultimately leaves him.

An unlikeable protagonist does not always make for an unlikeable film. There are countless films – from Scarface to Clockwork Orange, Twilight to Sideways – in which the main character's values, insights or personality might misalign with the viewer's, and sometimes this makes for an even richer experience. But (500) Days of Summer doesn't really fit into this category. Tom's perspective is never presented as anything other than reality (are we supposed to feel happy for him at the end when he finds a new girl, Autumn, for whom he can project his ideals?). Summer's feelings and motives are never fully explained (why would you invite your ex to your engagement party a few weeks later, I'm so confused?). And all the other characters feel like a bit like extras on Friends – easy to watch in their various contexts, but ultimately pointless to the wider narrative.

I could just be being cynical. As someone who regularly watches crap rom coms and reality TV shows, hungover and sprawled across my bed in my pants eating potato-based snacks, I can understand that a film doesn't have to be "good" to be enjoyable. If that was the case, I wouldn't be sticking on The Holiday each Christmas, or finding grainy streams of Jackie Collins novels adapted into low budget movies starring Susan Somers. But I think what makes (500) Days of Summer especially grating is that it pretends to be something it isn't. It's a Richard Curtis film disguised as Eternal Sunshine, a regular stock Hollywood rom-com disguised as True Romance, a descendent of High Fidelity without actually being one.

Who knows what (500) Days of Summer would have looked like had it been made today. The Manic Pixie Dream Girl trope has thankfully become less prominent, more dated. Uncomfortable encounters with ex-lovers happen on social media, rather than park benches (there's no way Tom wouldn't have known Summer was engaged now, when he'd likely be poring over her tagged posts on IG). In general, perhaps, our relationship to relationships have become more casual and less defined. I've encountered more Summer-like approaches in recent years than Tom-like approaches, which might be considered a positive thing (it's not fair to expect one person to be your everything forever). In that way, (500) Days of Summer is a very 2009 film. But unlike some of the classic films it's been compared to, maybe it should just stay there.

@daisythejones