Why did Summer Break Up With Tom? 500 Days of Summer Review.

The romantic porridge that had been brewing in Tom’s head since childhood was waiting for a beautiful plate to fill it to the brim. He hoped to meet his reflection, only in a skirt, and then one day, he met a girl with azure-turquoise eyes.

If you are reading my review, most likely, this story broke your heart, and you are looking for an answer to the question – Why did Summer break up with Tom? You know, it’s a little hard for me to write this review because I had the same summer in my life. And, of course, my impressions of the picture are mixed with the feelings I experienced then. You likely have found yourself in such trouble too, and that’s what I want to say.

This film is not about finding love or what to do when you find it. All romantics have such a summer. You have to survive it.

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Tom.

It is impossible to fully answer the question of why Summer left Tom without getting acquainted with the inner world of heroes. Let’s start with Tom.

A striking point is that the gender roles seem to have been reversed in the film. Most romantic comedies follow a predictable pattern where a woman seeks true love, falls for a charming yet unreliable man, and endures heartbreak. However, this story flips the script, offering a refreshing twist from the start.

So, one fact was enough for Tom ( love for The Smiths) to decide he found an ideal girl. We can mock Tom as much as we want, but generally speaking, when we are all in love, our perception of reality is distorted since our brain is boiled in a soup of hormones.

Further to Summer’s direct words that she does not want anything serious, he agrees. But at the same time, he hopes that he can change her attitude. Tom lives in a world of illusions and, depending on the stage of development of their relationship, he either idealizes Summer or humiliates her and tries to find flaws. At the same time, he constantly agrees to conditions that are psychologically stressful for him and expects Summer to appreciate it.

For all the film’s apparent ease, Tom is always a victim. Everyone around him knows how much he suffers, consoles him, and gives advice. But if this advice is not to his liking, he begins to doubt the expertise of his friends, whom he was previously ready to entrust with solving the most important issues of his life.

It is most evident after he learns that Summer is engaged. He starts to work poorly, gets incredibly drunk, is rude to people on the street, and shows with all his appearance how bad he is. Even on a blind date, he spends the entire evening telling his companion about his ex. Yes, the hero really does have strong feelings. However, none of his actions are aimed at supporting himself or taking real action. No, Tom constantly looks for open ears and pity from others because he does not understand how to care for himself.

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Unfortunately, Tom is not interested in real relationships and intimacy. He lives in a fantasy world. The film mentions that in his youth, he wanted to become an architect and realize his career, but “somehow it didn’t work out.” And when should he do this if he is immersed in his illusions and suffering because of them 24/7? It allows him not to grow up and take responsibility but to remain an eternal saddened romantic.

Also, Tom was afraid to take responsibility for those steps that would really change something in his life. He received everything good on someone else’s initiative – a drunken friend, Summer. The hero swam with the flow. Both in work and love, he had one problem – indecision.

By the way, the narrator’s voice in the film helps us stay clear-headed and look at the situation from the outside. So, for 95 minutes, we observe how Tom lives in a great love story, in which he is the main character and the author. Marc Webb shot a remarkable movie!

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Summer.

We see Summer through Tom’s eyes, and there may be different points of view on what she was like. Here are my thoughts.

It is the only phrase about Summer- the phrase of the red-haired girl who went on a blind date with Tom. “So she didn’t use you, didn’t cheat on you, and warned you in advance that she didn’t want a serious relationship?”

At the beginning of the film, we are told that Summer is traumatized by her parents’ divorce and doesn’t know what she wants. It seems to me that both of these couples have problems.

The girl constantly sends Tom conflicting signals that do not correspond to her behavior with him. Let’s remember how Summer says she is interested in Tom as a friend; in the next scene, she kisses him near the photocopier. She gets closer to him, intimate and emotionally, and then says they are just friends. The characters chat and laugh pleasantly on the train against the sunset backdrop, although Summer is already in a serious relationship by this time. And when Tom has a real chance to break off this relationship, she does not let him do it.

In my opinion, the heroine clearly enjoys Tom’s suffering. She deliberately invites him to her wedding party and comes to the park bench to meet him again and show her superiority in the relationship. This is not an indicator of an “adult” character. In this game, she is the main one. He is a follower.

As we remember, Summer doesn’t explain anything and often refers to her acting in a certain way because she wants to.

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Why did Summer break up with Tom?

The story is a platinum classic about a relationship between two young and immature individuals. During this relationship, they bend over backward, trying not to show what they really are. Summer needs to meet someone; otherwise, she’s bored alone. Tom fits the bill, more or less.

But Summer lives and enjoys this life regardless of whether Tom is in it.

Tom tries to fill the emptiness inside him in this relationship with Summer, which is why the separation hurts him so much. Tom doesn’t want to see that Summer doesn’t love him. And Summer doesn’t want to understand that Tom loves her and that all this is serious for him.

First, this film is probably not about love or relationships. It is about people who believe that their hopes should come true. They believe in it so much that they forget about the real world, that not everything is so simple here, and that any little thing can ruin everything.

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Remember there were frames with children’s photos of the heroes separated by a black line? These are two different lives that cannot intersect for a long time. And when the young Summer blows a dandelion, bubbles appear in Tom’s frame!

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Final words.

Honestly, I love 500 Days of Summer and rewatch it once a year. 

It is important that the picture turned out to be very positive and even life-affirming. You can go further and even call it socially beneficial—such a successful example of mass therapy for unhappy lovers. Do you like this picture?

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