500 Days of Summer

One of my favorite movies of all time is "500 Days of Summer" starring Joseph Gordon Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.  It is this beautiful story of boy meets girl, boy loves girl, girl gets tired of boy, and boy meets new girl.  I love it so much because of the strong focus on the main character, Tom Hansen, which helps the viewer really experience his emotions and confusion through the nonlinear narrative style.  It starts off with Tom in a regular, boring work setting and all of the sudden, a wonderful new girl steps into his picture.  This girl is Summer Finn and she is unique while still luring and flirtatious.  She reels Tom in with her interesting persona and they share a common band they both enjoy which sparks their relationship.  However, Summer is not one to settle down, regardless of how attracted she is to someone.  Because she does make it apparent to Tom that she likes him, they have a relationship but it is never given a title.  And Tom needs that.  So, Tom decides to ask Summer what they are and what they are doing if they aren't even moving forward.  Summer has no idea and doesn't want to make it anything and she calls them "friends", the ULTIMATE insult.  They break it off, and then it goes back on, and then off again, and this pattern continues for about 500 days.  Until the last day when they are off, Tom sees Summer and they talk and he finds out that she is engaged.  Imagine the pain Tom felt in that moment.  The words must have stung so badly, especially since he probably convinced himself that he was better off without the crazy girl who will probably never find real love and stick with it, but she does.  But, Tom has grown stronger since they were together and after they meet, he goes to an interview for a new job and while in the waiting room he meets a new girl.  She starts a conversation with him and seems to be interested so Tom asks her out.  When he asks for her name, she replies with, "Autumn".  How beautiful is that?  I can't even handle it.  Like a new season in the cycle of of life, Tom, without trying or expecting it, flipped over to a new page and heads into the beginning of a new story.  The whole movie ends there and I love that we don't see any more about him and Autumn because it keeps the movie sweet and simple in the finale.  The ending kept the story about the main topic, Tom finding love and losing love, and I could literally watch the movie 500 times without getting sick of it.  THE END.