Director Marc Webb has described his film “(500) Days of Summer” (2009) as more of a “coming of age” story as opposed to a “rom-com.” He stated, “We arrive at a different conclusion, for one thing.
Plus, most romantic comedies are more loyal to a formula than to emotional truth.
It’s about happiness, and learning that you’ll find it within yourself, rather than in the big blue eyes of the girl in the cubicle down the hall.
I wanted to make an unsentimental movie and an uncynical movie.
In my mind, I wanted it to be something you could dance to.
That’s why we put a parenthesis in the title – it’s like a pop song in movie form. It’s not a big film. It’s not about war or poverty.
It’s about 500 days in a young guy’s relationship, but it’s no less deserving of scrutiny. When your heart is first broken, it consumes you.
And it’s an emotion I wanted to make a movie about, before I forgot how it felt.”
Webb also stated that Zooey Deschanel’s character, Summer, is based on a stock character type; “Yes, Summer is an immature view of a woman.
She’s Tom’s view of a woman.
He doesn’t see her complexity and the consequence for him is heartbreak. In Tom’s eyes, Summer is perfection, but perfection has no depth.
Summer’s not a girl, she’s a phase.”
JosephGordon-Levitt explained that he was drawn to the role of Tom because of his relatability to the character. “I’ve had my heart broken before. Truly, truly broken. But when I look back at me in my heartbroken phase, it’s pretty hilarious, because it felt so much more extreme than it really was.
One of the things I love about ‘(500) Days of Summer’ is that it doesn’t make light of what we go through in romances, but it is honest about it and shows it for what it is, which is often profoundly funny.”
In the Entertainment Weekly’s interview of the 10th anniversary of the film’s release, Gordon-Levitt and Deschanel addressed its cultural impact and the viewers’ frequent misconception of their characters, such as thinking Summer is a villain.
Even though the film is told from Tom’s point of view, “Summer is completely honest the entire movie.” Gordon-Levitt repeatedly warned against sympathizing with his character Tom, who “develops a mildly delusional obsession over a girl onto whom he projects all these fantasies […] That’s falling in love with the idea of a person, not the actual person.” (Wikipedia)
Happy Birthday, Marc Webb!