By Ashley Trinh
Ever since the release date of the movie (500) Days of Summer, watchers have incessantly debated about who the antagonist is in this film. Many viewers blame Summer for the inevitable downfall of their relationship; however, the film takes a much more nuanced approach than what the mass of the audience argues.
In many cases of romantic relationships failing, the blame typically never falls solely on one person. There is always something intangible that prevents a relationship from working out, such as incompatibility, internalized trauma or emotional immaturity.
With this in mind, was there ever a “villain” in (500) Days of Summer?
Many people insist that Summer is the antagonist in the film; however, Summer communicates her boundaries and perspective on love and relationships early on in their friendship.
As Summer sits in a bar with Tom and his coworker, she expresses that she enjoys her independence and is not seeking out any romantic relationship.
“I don’t want to be someone’s anything,” Summer said.
Her perspective on love is cynical — she states that love isn’t real and just a “fantasy”, and she backs up her claim by using her parents’ failed marriage as an anecdote.
Furthermore, when Tom and Summer visit IKEA together, Summer reminds Tom once more that she is “not looking for anything serious.” Tom nods his head, acknowledging her statement, and they carry on with their “date”.
Nevertheless, Tom develops feelings for Summer throughout the film and is eventually stricken with rage when he realizes that he is unable to change Summer’s perspective on love, and thus, her perspective on their relationship.
Tom bursts into anger at Summer one night after their date is abruptly ended by a violent encounter between Tom and a stranger flirting with Summer.
“Well you’re not the only one who gets a say in this … and I say we’re a couple,” Tom said.
Many people fail to understand that Tom’s feelings for Summer are merely a mixture of infatuation and obsession. When Tom tells Paul, his long-time friend, that he is in love with Summer, he only mentions her physical traits or qualities.
Tom fails to understand Summer on an emotional and intellectual level. For example, when Summer opens up to Tom mid-film, he drifts off into an internal monologue about how he feels special since Summer is finally letting him in.
Summer’s unreciprocated feelings towards Tom are valid. She sees that Tom is only infatuated with the idea of her and fails to see her nuances and imperfections. Hence, it would be unfair to Tom to commit herself to him half-heartedly, and even more unfair to herself to commit to a person that does not make her feel understood or loved.
On the other hand, Summer is partially at fault for continuing to entertain the relationship, when Tom clearly has very strong feelings for Summer.
After Tom’s outburst of anger, he storms out of Summer’s apartment to head home. Later that night, Summer shows up at his apartment to apologize to him and ends up briefly making out with him.
Kissing Tom after an argument over the status of their relationship may be hurtful and misleading to Tom, since he might view these physical displays of affection more intimately than Summer does, due to his feelings for her.
However, love and romantic feelings can become convoluted, distressing and confusing. Sometimes, there is no villain in an incompatible relationship. Sometimes, the answer is simply, that person is not the one, and the feelings that were experienced were never love to begin with.
Summer and Tom were incompatible from the start, as their views on romantic relationships never aligned and they were on different levels of emotional maturity, making the downfall of their relationship inevitable. This film subverts the archetype of contemporary romance movies, to say that sometimes there is no villain — but rather, they both were in the wrong, and they both made their mistakes.
However, this doesn’t mean that they were both antagonists. This just means that they were both human and just two incompatible people.
