Ruining my favorite films with feminism: Revisiting (500) Days of Summer
When (500) Days of Summer came out on July 17, 2009, it was a rare film that APPEALED across gender lines. Dudes loved it. Chicks loved it. I definitely loved it. It was beautiful and poignant, funny and sad, seemingly so balanced. Above all else, it was COOL, and for me, at age 22, sadly there was not much more important.
7 YEARS AFTER ITS RELEASE, IN THE MIDST OF MY OWN BREAKUP, I FELT COMPELLED TO REVISIT IN SEARCH OF SOME ANSWERS.
(Let’s get this out of the way real fast, since we're going to be talking about biases: I have big blue eyes. I sing karaoke remarkably well. I am impulsive and silly, and have an awkward but (I’d like to think) charming aesthetic. I drink whiskey and draw little birds with french phrases making the wings. I dated a girl in college, but pssst... it wasn’t a phase. Long story short: I also come to the table with some biases.)
Coolness is all over this movie. Tom (played by Joseph Gordon-Levitt) is a cool dude with a cool job that he hates (how cool). Summer (played by Zooey Deschanel) is cool about romance (i.e. she doesn't believe in it) and cooly owns her desires and opinions. Tom and Summer listen to cool music, and go to cool movies. The soundtrack of the film is cool, the non-linear structure is cool... you get it.
Like most "cool" things, the movie was the subject of both fandom and backlash. It's been accused of trying too hard, being too twee, being a little too endearing. All these critiques, BTW, have also been applied to the character of Summer (and the actress who portrayed her), the quintessential Manic Pixie Dream Girl.
Yeah, that's right. I said it. I know we're all sick of talking about it. There's been more discussion over the MPDG than I could possibly link to. AV Club coined it and destroyed it, Jezebel declared it dead. It's a sexist, reductive trope that I cannot seem to avoid. Love her or hate her, though, the MPDG is part of the narrative as a narrative construct. Because it's a compelling short hand for "female character with a quirky personality and control over her sexuality, used in a story to propel the growth of a male protagonist".
But 5DOS was based on a true story, despite it's self-congratulating self-aware protestations to the contrary. It's been well documented that the screenwriter wrote the film following a breakup, and that nearly every single thing in the movie happened in real life. So to take this movie at face value, knowing actual humans were at play, we must consider the narrative bias.
In the case of 5DOS, as is so often the case in Hollywood, the gentleman have the reins. They tell the story, and however nuanced and faithful to life they might attempt to be, they can only fully tell one side. In this story, like so many others, the MPDG is considered the agent of change, taking the responsibility for the protag's development.
Summer can be called a Manic Pixie, for sure, and the movie does it damndest to paint her as a dream girl. If you listen to her dialogue, though, she tells Tom and the audience over and over that she's her own agent. Sure, she's selfish, in that she exists solely for her own self, but she's straight-forward with her opinions and intentions (as damaging as they might be). She is a woman in control of her needs and happiness.
om, for his part, lives in dream land long before Summer enters the picture. He wallows in his averageness, feels entitled to a life beyond his efforts, and is casually misogynistic. He's easily as narcissistic as Summer, and projects his own romantic ideals onto her despite knowing she has no interest in romance. He ignores her words (and those of all the female characters in the movie) to serve an idealized avatar who exists only to bring his life meaning. When the ideal is shattered, he spirals and deflects, and until he hits rock bottom and puts himself to work.
So if Summer (and her real-life inspiration) is written off as a MPDG, here's my question: what the heck is Tom?
Why, in all of the embarrassingly extensive research I've done on this post, have I yet to find a short-hand for this type? The Zach Braff, Orlando Bloom, Steve Martin, JGL mope, who targets a confident young woman and projects his need for meaning onto her yielding supple frame? The dude who is so very uncertain of his position in the world that he requires the energy of an avatar of his own unrealistic expectations? Where is the psuedo-psychoanalytic acronym for these jerks?
I've done a lot of thinking about this, and I'd like to propose this equally pathologized moniker:
Depressive Entitled Fantasy Lad (DEFL)
Though the MPDG is presented as the fantastical creature, it is the DEFL who time and time again willfully ignores reality in order to serve his own narrative.
What makes a DEFL, you ask? Well, let's take 5DOS as an example and talk about how Tom acts throughout. (Spoiler Alert: He acts a lot like an asshole).
1: "YOU SHOULD KNOW UP FRONT, THIS IS NOT A LOVE STORY."
The movie begins with the breakup. We see Tom smashing plates, in utter denial of both the end of the relationship and his role in its demise. His friends (and little sister, a wise-as-hell Chloe Grace Moretz) support him in the only way they know how - listening to his account of the conversation.
5:40 - “All we do is argue!” “That is BULLSHIT.” Tee hee. I never said this movie wasn't funny.
Trying to figure out reasons that Tom might skirt responsible for the breakup, the gang lands on Summer's PMS. When in doubt, blame menstruation, amirite??
9:17 - There’s a rather long and clever segment in which the narrator waxes poetic on, essentially, a pretty confident young woman. Summer is shown flitting through life, smiling straight into the eyes of all she encounters. (OMG, a woman who makes eye contact? SHE MUST BE A UNICORN.)
The narrator wraps up the segment by declaring her entrance into Tom's life “fate”. Is she an instrument of fate, or an object of fate? Whatever she is, she is clearly not her own person, she exists to move a story forward. The story that every “post-adolescent male” is entitled to.
Consider this fair warning, ladies - you may be called upon to fulfill some guy’s extraordinary expectations, because you meet during Act One in the movie that is his life story. You will have little to no warning.
2: "maybe she's an Uppity, Better-Than-Everyone Super Skank."
9:25 - An encounter is described (second hand) in which Summer neglects to entertain a potential suitor (whom we never even meet) and is immediately written off as a horrible woman. Tom immediately believes and affirms this, and muses as to why pretty women "get away" with the offense of not flirting back with everyone. The answer he gets from his sad sad coworker?
(Can I just take a moment to talk about how much I love/hate Geoffrey Arend’s character? He is so typically terrible. He hates and loves women in a consuming fashion, in a way that feels familiar. He says things like “are you a lesbian?” in robot voices to undercut their misogyny. He’s a coward and a blowhard, neither fully comic nor tragic because he does not fully inhabit himself. I have met so, so many men like this. Painfully good portrayal.)
13:31 - After Summer and Tom have their first conversation, he grabs a barely-begun sketch from his desk. Flush with the confidence, he starts scribbling a skyline. (Side note: Is this a thing that architects do? Design entire city skylines? Silly me, I thought you only got to do one building at a time.) He gets frustrated with his averageness, erases his meager progress and gives up within about 5 seconds.
15:28 - Tom recounts an incredibly banal encounter with Summer in the elevator to his buddies, and the results are... disturbing. She responds to his inquiry about her weekend whereabouts with "It was good..." Her supposed allusion to pleasure sends Tom into a tailspin, as he at once concludes that she's a) a slut b) a bitch c) not good enough for him anyways. Tom is already possessive of Summer, after maybe 4 minutes of platonic interaction. Already his expectations of her role in his life color and cloud reality.
3: "So do you have a boyfriend?"
I'mma just lay out some direct quotes from the Karaoke scene.
“I don’t feel comfortable being anyone’s girlfriend. I don’t actually feel comfortable being anyone’s anything.”
“I like being on my own. Relationships are messy and people’s feelings get hurt. Who needs it?”
“Might as well have fun while we can and save the serious stuff for later.”
Clear as day statements, from moment one. They are not taken seriously by our DEFL; why? Is it because the speaker is a winsome, friendly woman? A debate ensues about the validity of love as a concept, ending with Summer's request to "agree to disagree." At the end of the evening, Summer opens to the door for friendship, and Tom accepts.
Let me state for the record that Summer is also kind of an asshole. I'm not trying to excuse her bad decisions, either. She kisses Tom in the breakroom after declaring "friendship." Girl, I get that you're a free-spirit. I get that you made your intentions verbally clear. Your impulsivity, though, is kinda selfish and awfully confusing. Should you have known better? Probably. Should Tom have known better? Definitely.
4: "This is fun. You're fun."
It's around the IKEA scene that I find it impossible to not sit back and enjoy the film. It's sweeping, it's romantic. I fall in love with her, with him, with charm. Flitting through IKEA, flirty and flippant. *sigh* It's easy to fall in love.
Summer again informs Tom: This is not serious. This is not love. This is fun. Again and again, she discloses her intentions (or lack thereof). Tom wants so terribly to be agreeable to these terms. The energy she provides to his dull, beige life is too enticing. He craves it, seeking meaning beyond his own mediocrity. And so he lies. To her, and to himself.
Having established boundaries (or so she thinks), Summer goes home with Tom. While he attempts to talk his reflection down from the edge of total obsession, she quietly undresses and waits to have some fun. Life changing sex ensues.
OK, I've gotta address something really fast. There's this cross-cultural social narrative that women can't divorce sex from emotions. Men joke that you can't have sex with a female virgin without her "imprinting" on you like a baby bird, bitches be trippin', blah blah blah. I would argue this is some straight up projection; a sexual variant of the classic "I'm not crying, YOU'RE CRYING." Exhibit A: The Post-Coital Musical Sequence. Speaking from my limited perspective, it's rarely the females who lose their goddamn minds after sleeping with a new partner for the first time. Maybe it's the power shift that occurs: the woman allowing access and control of her body to her partner (in Summer's case, without much hullabaloo at all). Tom seems to take this as a literal "win," dancing and miming home runs. (Is this a conquering thing? Never mind. Different post for a different time.)
Summer and Tom spend more time with one another, and Summer begins to share her space and her secrets. Tom spends so much time in his head marvelling at his specialness for having been allowed into her world, that he completely misses the content she shares. The only thing he (and the audience) catches is "I've never told that to anyone before." Does he thank her for her vulnerability, acknowledge her statement, ask any follow ups? Nope.
He uses it to remind her (and himself) of his worth; his uniqueness; His coolness.
5: "You were just so completely, completely uncool in there."
Summer and Tom sit at a bar, where he bags on other women's fashion choices (ultimate Cool Guy move). Summer is aloof and clearly not into the negging, even when she is the object that rises above ("I like how you dress"). I get the impression that they have sat at this bar and had this conversation before.
When a stereotypical jackass hits on Summer, she meets his advance with unblinking honesty. She is not rude, she is straightforward. She is not offended or riled. She holds her ground and is calm. Well done, lady.
The jackass tosses one last piece of bait to Tom as he retreats ("I can't believe this is your boyfriend"), and Tom takes it, punching the offender in the face. Poor show, sir.
They return to her apartment, and when Summer brings up her problem with the fight (his "uncoolness"), Tom immediately flips out. He deflects responsibility for his violent outburst (he was "defending" her) can no longer pretend he isn't disturbed by Summer's independence and rejection of traditional relationships. He screams and throws things and declares that they are a unit, despite her clearly stated feelings. It has been decided.
Summer comes to him in the middle of the night, a sodden cliche. She apologizes for getting mad. He does not apologize for anything. With her words, she again warns him of her flippancy and non-intentions. With her eyes and lips, though, she undermines herself and him. Why? In the name of fun? Is she having fun still?
We're at day 259, btw. 290 is breakup day. The writing is on the wall.
6 "A Shitload of Suffering, is what I'm saying"
Upon closer examination of the timeline, it's striking how little of the 500 days are spent with Summer. Nearly half of the story is spent with the imaginary version of Summer in Tom's head. Seems to me, though, that even when he was with her physically, Tom only ever saw the version of Summer in his head. There is perhaps no clearer example of this as the inarguably beautiful Expectations vs. Reality sequence.
Post-breakup, Tom's friends set him up on a date with a lovely lady who, while initially engaged and inviting, quickly sees him for what he is: a big messy bag of self-pity and self-loathing. She speaks for us all when she reminds Tom that Summer never cheated, lied or stole anything from him. Yet again, he ignores a woman speaking truths. She wisely leaves Tom to his wallowing.
7: "It's these cards, and the movies and the pop songs"
After months of despondence and generally shitty behavior, Tom monologues himself out of his job. (Classic DEFL move.) Part of me wants to say, well done - you busted out of your rut, you made a hard choice, you spoke your truth. The other part of me, though, remembers this scene was written by a screenwriter having, I assume, this same epiphany. He acknowledges that media causes misery, and that he's responsible, and yet here he is! Still making the miserable media. What I see is yet another male protagonist deflecting responsibility for his bad behavior.
So Tom pulls his shit together after burning his framework to the ground. He draws another skyline (seriously, dude, just focus on making ONE GOOD BUILDING), this time on his cool blackboard wall. He lists potential employers and crosses off option after option, finally landing on the last available. Who does he meet in the lobby at his interview? Another pretty, confident young woman. Named Autumn. *eye roll*
So our DEFL has completed his arc, ready to jump into another relationship with another symbol of a woman. He's suffered, learned and grown (has he really, though?), and it's all because of this MPDG, who flies away unscathed. Right?
Truth is, we don't know if Summer is unscathed because we don't get to see her story. We only see Tom's memories and projections. Factually, we know she saw the pair was poorly matched, did the difficult thing and ended things face to face. We know she loses her job in the aftermath of the breakup. Finally, we know she gets engaged, 6 or so months after she and Tom stop seeing one another. That's pretty much that.
5DOS the film has a lot in common with its protagonist. It appears to be self-aware, but is so fixated on coolness that any introspection is excused as a product of its environment. (See: constant references to The Graduate, misinterpretation of such.) It condemns and celebrates concept of "The One," and acknowledges that the desire for the one implanted by select art, and the misunderstanding of such. And yet, isn't it an agent of manipulation itself?
A side note about the actors:
Joseph Gordon-Levitt skyrocketed after 5DOS came out, no question. He has since been seen in such small films as Inception, 50/50, The Dark Knight Rises, Looper, Lincoln… the impressive list continues. He also runs an independent collaborative production company and website..
Zooey Deschanel followed up with appearing as Mary Todd Lincoln in Drunk History, when it was still a webseries. New Girl premiered in 2011, solidifying her status as the MPDG of the moment, a heavy but adorable crown. She also runs a website.
No one doesn’t like JGL, but it feels like a LOT of people don’t like Zooey Deschanel. I wonder: how much of that has to do with 5DOS and the stigma of the MPDG?
Like the film itself posits, media representations, interpretations, and misinterpretations all have a powerful effect on the way we live our lives and see the world. Art should and will be interpreted six ways from Sunday, but one constant is the creator. So, next time you find yourself falling in love with a story, just remember: Consider the source.
