Textual Analysis- -500 Days of Summer-2009- Directed by Marc Webb
Written by Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber.
500 Days of Summer follows the story of Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), everything that we see in the film, is through his perspective and thoughts. Tom is a card-greeting writer, but is also described as a hopeless romantic, especially when he comes across Summer (Zooey Deschanel), his boss’s assistant in his workplace. Throughout the story we see Tom and Summers “love” story begin to bloom, however it takes Tom by surprise when Summer is suddenly done with their relationship and essentially, dumps him. After this he reflects over the 500 days that her spent with her, all the good times in addition to the bad. Over the time he realises that he was never as prominent nor important to Summer as she was to him, and because of this he tries to figure out what could’ve gone wrong,, despite Summers character always being a manic dream girl, never taking life too seriously and especially not wanting a serious relationship, nor any relationship at all.
Narratively, this movie flows in a very non linear way, the storyline is very fractured, creating the the sense of instability that it seems the filmmakers are trying to achieve as it keeps jumping back and forth in time, showing the broken parts of the pairs relationship with each other. . The way the filmmakers did this was by using imagery force of a countdown, showing the audience which day of the 500 days that a certain event would occur by using a tree as the prominent subject of the image. For example, on a sunny day when the tree was in full bloom, this would usually correlate with Tom and Summer having a good day together, but after the scene is shown it cuts back to the countdown, going either backwards or forwards in time, but this time, the tree has no leaves and the day appears to be cloudy and gloomy- this is a foreshadowing that the scene that is about to appear, is one of Tom and Summers bad days. So, this is how the structuring of the films continues throughout, which can be very confusing, yet very effective from a filmmakers point of view, as this is clearly what they are wanting to achieve; to confuse the audience.
It is essentially showing the strength and weaknesses of love, showing that one day it can be the most amazing feeling, but then jumping to the next few days, when it is quite the opposite. This type of narrative structure is not always easy to attain, but when it is done, it’s one of the best ways of telling a story, especially this one. This is because, the filmmakers were not trying to go for the classic love story, where the guy typically “gets the girl”, vice versa. It is trying to show the audience a more realistic perspective on love, and that sometimes, it is not always returned by the person you are in love with. As it is quite clear throughout this story, that Summer is not necessarily in love with Tom and she has very different views on life and love than he does.
Therefore, the non-linear narrative can be useful in filmmaking, because it can baffle the audience and take them by surprise, especially if it is not the filmmakers intentions to let them know what is going on, it makes the film a whole lot less predictable. However, when carrying out this type of narrative, it is important to ensure that it works with the story.
In regards to the genre of this film, it is important to note that ‘ 500 Days of Summer’ is not necessarily a romance, as it fits more into, a coming of age or drama slot. This is easily due to the fact that this is clearly no love story, as the narrator states in the beginning of the film ,”this is a story of boy meets girl, but this not a love story”.
Throughout the film, it’s simple to realises that there is simply not enough info given about Summer for this to be even close to a love story. Everything is revolved around Tom, what he’s feeling and how he sees Summer. The audience don’t ever actually get a glimpse into her world, simply just Toms. A reason for this film also fitting a coming of age genre is because, during his time with Summer, he matures and starts to really understand the true meaning of love, not the vivid, cloudy thought he initially had. He grows throughout this experience and turns himself and his ideas around.
This film clearly represents how a person falls in love with the idea of someone; they begin to paint their own ideal picture of what they want someone to be, but in reality they are someone completely different, with their own plans and visions of the world. This movie portrays how Tom viewed Summer, often with his own narration, never truly showing Summers true personality, nor life. She could never be what Tom wanted her to be and she was okay with that, being the headstrong, independent person she was.
When analysing the two characters separately, it’s important to note that Tom never wore bright colours, he was always found wearing browns, beige’s, greys and overall, lifeless colours, with his hair always being messy. In contrast, Summer always wore pastel colours such as light blues, whites, pink, etc. and her clothes being quite loose fitting, portraying her ‘manic pixie dream girl’ and unpredictable character. This was the first indication that Tom and Summer were from very worlds.
Furthermore, even her apartment is filled with random objects, in addition to the whole apartment appearing to be very dreamlike as fairy-lights drape her bedroom, whereas Toms apartment is once again very dark, filled with greys and browns and the objects in his house kept to a minimum, implying him feeling empty and not really fully knowing himself yet. However, important factors are not only portrayed this way but also through certain scenery. For example, a specific scene is where Tom goes to a party at Summers house ( a party she invites him too after not seeing him for a while) and he sees her telling a friend that she is engaged. He proceeds to leave after being so heartbroken, and had he does, the colour and reality literally drains from his world, becoming a black and white sketch for a few seconds before it cuts the next scene.
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Even the sound throughout the film is an extremely important factor and half of the time, it is Tom narrating his thoughts and feelings about Summer, even when she is explaining important details about herself, the audience never truly gets to know more about her as it will cut to Tom, narrating over the scene, proving that the film is truly about him and his story, not Summers.
Overall, this film portrays excellent film making through the use of a creative non-linear story line, effective costume, interior and exterior design, important portrayal of colour and a unique use of sound through narration. This shows that by using complicating film methods, it produce the most intriguing piece of cinema which will impact the audience and their real lives.
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