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500 Days Of Summer Codes And Conventions

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(500) Days of Summer (Webb, 2009) is a unique film that breaks away from the numerous conventions used in typical romantic comedies. The main theme is dealing with those small but significant moments between two people and taking a risk at love when uncertainty remains. Moments that can make someone wonder if the other person was feeling the same thing or if it was only an illusion. This is a different kind of love story as it is not told in a conventional way, yet still carries various conventional characteristics of a romantic comedy. (500) Days of Summer is about how romantic preconceptions can change the true understandings of relationships and how trying to recognize that the true nature of love is not something with a definite answer. …show more content…

The genre of the film misleads the viewers to believe that the narrative will be from both protagonists' perspectives: Tom and Summer. When in actuality, it is told through the eyes of Tom, who is the main protagonist male character. The film’s use of a male’s point of view rather than a woman’s, makes it very contrasting to classic romantic comedies, which are usually associated with women. However, due to the narrative perspective being in Tom’s point of view, Summer’s personal life remained a mystery to both Tom and the audience. There is no mention of friends, or life goals, or hobbies. All that is known about Summer Finn is that she seems to be a free-spirit who values fun and independence over stability and love. There were unconventional styles used in the film’s editing too, such as the use of black and white, which demonstrated flashbacks from Tom’s memory. (500) Days of Summer also makes use of subtitles in a scene where Tom describes in French how “his love feels like an intense foreign film.” (500 Days of Summer, Webb) The film also uses unconventional style in a scene where Tom is singing solo, sarcastically mocking musical type of romantic …show more content…

Unlike the usual romantic comedy that paints a perfect picture of romantic entanglements having a happy ending, (500) Days of Summer is a more believable love story with realistic complications. The film shows the actuality of relationships and the complications that come along with them. Tom is so in love with the idea of Summer that he completely ignores all of the things that she has been telling him. From the beginning, she let him know what type person she was and what type of person she wasn’t. Tom was too blinded by his own expectations to actually take in any of what she was saying. While romantic comedies tell us that Tom and Summer should be together, any person actually watching the movie would have realized that Tom and Summer are polar opposites. In Tom’s eyes, Summer is perfection, but perfection has no depth. Summer’s not a girl, she’s a phase. Tom was just too close to the image to see the complete picture. While the idea of soul-mates may be something straight out of the movies, one can very well be happy with different people. But then what happens when the relationship runs out of steam? Then you just have two people who really aren’t that compatible. In (500) Days of Summer that is exactly what happened. Tom is completely oblivious to it and instead Summer is forced to be the voice of reason. Summer is pictured as

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