When I think about people having unrealistic expectations about love and happy endings, I think about girls. However, I recently watched (500) Days of Summer, and in this movie it is a male character, Tom, who has the unrealistic expectations, and I found this to be an interesting twist. This movie follows the relationship, and post relationship, between Tom and Summer. Summer is very cynical about love. She even equates love to Santa Claus, something children only believe in until they have experienced enough to know better. Tom believes in true love and "knows" almost from the beginning of the relationship that he loves Summer. He never doubts that he and Summer are meant to be together, and this is why he is so disappointed when she breaks up with him.
There is one specific scene in the movie, just after Tom finds out that Summer is engaged to someone else, where he is walking home, visibly upset, while the song playing in the background keeps repeating "I'm the hero of this story, I don't need to be saved." This was striking because first of all the song was sung by a woman, and also because at that moment Tom clearly does need some saving. This saving comes from his much younger sister who helps him cope with the failed relationship. This is the opposite of what would be expected in a traditional fairytale where it is usually a young girl who needs to be saved and a man who comes to her rescue.
Overall, this movie is a take on the idea of a fairytale romance from a different perspective. In this story it is the man who comes in with the unrealistic expectations about love. He is the one who is shattered when things don't work out and needs help from his friends and sister to bounce back.
It is also interesting that the relationship that is the focal point of the movie, the one between Tom and Summer, does not work out. Instead, the movie ends with both of them having new possibilities for happiness with new partners. And Tom has bounced back to his old optimism and seems ready to once again jump into love. So even though the movie does support some more realistic expectations of love and relationships, it still provides hope for that fairytale ending.
Good textual analysis of the one specific scene you singled out. The juxtaposition of the song clearly highlights the role reversal of man who needs to be saved, instead of the woman who would be more typical in this situation.
ReplyDeleteI think this film was such a sleeper hit because it does exactly what you say - it's critical of the unrealistic expectations we have of love, while still leaving an opening to believe in magic and true love.
This movie is probably one of my favorites, and I'm so happy someone has decided to bring it up.
ReplyDeleteI definitely sympathize with your critique of this movie as a story that flips the usual gender roles seen in modern fairytale plotlines. In the movie, Summer makes it clear that she does not believe in true love, and does not want a relationship.
A few of my friends mentioned to me that they had thought Tom was the ideal man. They fell in love with his character...especially his innocence, harmless demeanor, and sensitivity. They then began a rant about how fed up they were about the "typical guys these days and their egos". I couldn't help but notice that the qualities they had listed as essential for their ideal man were not those that are usually attributed to men in fairytales. The men we have read about are usually brave, cunning, courageous, bold, confident, etc.
Are modern women superseding the commonly held belief that a perfect man should possess these characteristics of the alpha male? Is courage and confidence being interpreted as arrogance these days?