Find Your Autumn This Valentines Day!
With Valentine's Day around the corner, and the annual pressure to “define the relationship.” It feels like the perfect time to revisit a film I believe everyone should watch. It subtly warns us about romantic delusion in your early 20s, (500) Days of Summer.
Image Attribution: Machete kills, CC BY-SA 4.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
I’ve always loved the color blue. Sky blue, royal blue, ocean blue, every kind of blue. It’s calming, serene, and even tragic. My zodiac sign is Cancer, the water sign stereotype is that we feel everything a little too intensely. So of course one of my most rewatched films is a romantic comedy-drama drenched in the color blue.
One of the main characters in the movie, Summer, has big, impossible-to-ignore blue eyes. She comes off as super effortless, detached, and self assured. Most importantly, she doesn't want to be anyone's girlfriend. Tom, on the other hand, is a romantic idealist who falls fast and hard for Summer, the new girl at his job.
Image Attribution: CAryn Loveless, CC BY 3.0 <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0>, via Wikimedia Commons
This film came out years ago and the tension between the two still sparks up conversation. They have opposite emotional goals, but the painful relatability is in the “casual” actions that start to look like commitment. Picnics, movie dates, holding hands at IKEA. From the beginning, she states her boundaries. And from the beginning, he convinces himself he’s okay with them. The movie doesn’t villainize either character, it simply unveils the danger of projecting expectations onto someone who never agreed to carry them.
Back to the color blue, it follows Tom everywhere. His inner world is dreamy and romanticized. Summer also starts wearing more blue as their connection deepens, making her even closer to the fantasy he’s constructed. The cinematography! The split between expectation and reality is one of the most iconic aspects of the film. I rewatched (500) Days of Summer for the reality check I don’t want, but sometimes need. It’s the movie I put on whenever I catch myself romanticizing potential, mistaking a text for something meaningful, or turning one look into an imaginary future together. It’s a reminder that attraction isn’t a promise, which is both comforting and grounding.
By the end, Summer has moved on and Tom is still searching for answers. The viewer is left with the fact that communication is the core of a relationship. You can’t guess someone’s feelings, and you definitely can’t script someone else’s intentions.
Valentine’s Day is coming, consider this your cinematic PSA: Romance is sweet, but clear communication is hotter. If you’re obsessed with Summer, go meet your Autumn!
Strike Out,
Writer: Emily Talavera
Editor: Miranda Cardenas
Los Angeles