500 Days of Summer

The Tagline for this film is: This is not a love story. This is a story about love.
For me, this pretty much sums up the film as a whole, as it is quite unconventional and not a typical 'romance film'. This links in with short films, which are often rather unconventional, and try to bring forward different views or ideas on a subject. Music is also quite an important part of this film (it is mentioned throughout, e.g. Both characters share a love of The Smiths, they are seen in a record store on one of their dates etc.). It is most definitely a recurring theme, and something that I would like to take through into my own work. Another thing I really admire about this film is the unconventional structure and imaginative use of shots and editing:

In this particular scene, there is a split screen where on the left side, we see Tom's expectations of what is going to happen at the party, and the reality of what actually does. It is through scenes like this that the film establishes itself as a kind of 'Anti-Hollywood' production. It is not displaying a perfect happy ending, but a harsh reality. This makes it more relatable to the audience.


Another unconventional feature of the film, is the fact that it is presented in a nonlinear narrative. It jumps from various days within the 500 day span of Tom and Summer's relationship, indicated by an animation that includes the days number.

The number in the brackets changes for each new scene, and the changes in the background indicate the time of year.


I like this feature because I feel it helps to make the film more interesting as it keeps the audience on their feet as the narrative skips backwards and forwards. It also helps us to gain a greater understanding of the characters as we see them change through the varying stages of their relationship. In the romance genre, the relationships between the characters is the most important thing, and to portray this successfully, I believe you have to explore in some detail, the individual character's themselves. I think this film does that extremely well, and you immediately get a sense of the characters distinguishing features:

Tom, a hopeless romantic, and Summer, a woman who doesn't believe in love.