Fridge / (500) Days of Summer

• As seen above the movie could be considered to have a Downer Ending when he begins pursuing relationship with Autumn because of the implications that he hasn't learned anything from his relationship with Summer and is about to do a Here We Go Again!... unless you consider the importance of her different name: Autumn. Which means "change".
  • The ambiguousness is highlighted by Tom's appreciation of The Graduate which, similarly, has an ambiguous ending that would be considered a downer.
    • Valid, however, the lead up to this shows him finally putting work in towards his other goals (working as an architect), instead of wasting time in the greeting card company. It implies that while he was waiting for a Manic Pixie Dream Girl to come along and change his life, he's gotten over that and is taking steps towards finding happiness outside of his romantic relationships. If he happens to meet someone along the way, all the better, as he's better prepared for that, now.
    • Exactly, so even if he repeats all the same mistake all over again, it would still be a Bittersweet Ending, not a downright Downer Ending.
• Tom singing "Train in Vain" after breaking up with Summer. You can be forgiven for not knowing it's a Break-Up Song.
• One of the movie's most common criticisms is that Summer is bland or uninteresting, as if she's merely an archetype rather than an actual human being. But you have to remember that this movie is in Tom's perspective, and that includes his view of Summer–a mere object that he can project his ideal of a Manic Pixie Dream Girl onto instead of a person with thoughts and feeling and a life outside of being Tom's girlfriend. Summer is portrayed as a bland, flat archetype because that's how Tom sees her. She only becomes more nuanced and fully human towards the end of the movie, when Tom has matured enough to see past his previous view of her. This can also explain Zooey's rather emotionless acting; it was intentional on both her and the director's part, as she's merely an archetype for most of the movie.
  • Additionally, the whole "Tom is in love with the idea of Summer, not Summer herself" thing is further reinforced when Tom is describing what he loves about Summer to his friends. He's only talking about her superficial qualities, like her smile or her hair, not about any of her personality traits.
• A lot of people criticize Zooey Deschanel for her Dull Surprise as Summer. But it's not true - when she met Tom as well as in the early stage of their relationship, Summer was beaming and bubbly, which was wha drew Tom to her in the first place. It's later when she grows unhappy with their relationship that she gets emotionless, Dull Eyes of Unhappiness and all.
• The movie's final scene starts out as "Day 500" of Summer. By the time he meets Autumn, it changes to Day "1". If you've ever watched weather reports, you will notice that the first and last day of seasons frequently overlap. So indeed, the last day of summer is simultaneously the first of autumn.
• It makes sense that, while Tom is the one mostly in the wrong, that Summer would not be 100% blameless because one of the points of the film is that real relationships are messy and imperfect. And even then, it's mostly down to lack of communication, the difference being that Tom isn't willing or capable to communicate (and when the breakup happens, feels that Summer was purposefully misleading him) whereas Summer is at least trying to and doesn't realise that he's not getting it until she breaks up with him.