Joseph Gordon Levitt is Team Summer?

Nearly 10 years since the popular movie 500 Days of Summer hit theaters and star Joesph Gordon-Levitt tweeted about how he is #teamsummer when it came to the fictional couple’s break up.

Levitt responded to a tweet about the movie, and now the debate is rehashed all over again. If you haven’t seen the film, 500 Days of Summer basically follows Levitt’s character, Tom as she pursues his indie-pop dream girl, Summer played by Zoe Deschanel. Viewers everywhere debated who was truly at fault for the demise of their relationship, Tom or Summer? Fans were shocked to see that Levitt actually sided with his co-star.

People are up in arms about this, as most people blame Summer for the breakup. However, I have to agree with Levitt in that the entire movie is supposed to be about how the character Tom devastatingly misinterpreted Summer’s intentions.

I don’t understand why and how people still misinterpret the movies entire, yet blatantly clear, theme. The movie literally opens up with, “this is a story of boy meets girl. But before they do, you should know up front, this is not a love story.”

The narrator being up-front and direct parallels to Summer, and how she illicitly told Tom that she doesn’t believe in relationships. Her character wants to relish being young, and is uneasy with the thought of being someone’s possession.

Tom, however, is a hopeless romantic. The second that she walked into his office, Tom knew he wanted to pursue her, without even knowing her. He later finds out that she loves The Smiths, and in his mind, this means that they are clearly made for each other.

The two end up together, but Tom is clearly more invested than Summer and that shouldn’t be a surprise to Tom. Throughout the entire movie Summer spells it out for Tom that relationships just aren’t her thing. Yet, being a hopeless romantic, Tom becomes obsessed and makes their relationship out to be something that it is not.

Levitt was completely 100 percent correct. Their relationship failed not because Summer is an icy b*itch, but because Tom refused to listen to what Summer was feeling and saying, and projected his idea of a good relationship and a good girlfriend onto her.

Don’t get me wrong, I also think Summer is to blame for humoring the whole thing. But again, it is not like she didn’t make her intentions clear, it is all Tom’s fault for being too selfish and wrapped up in his own “romance”.

The thing about movies is that everyone always expects any romance to be a beautiful or tragic one. But the point to this movie, which makes it genius, is that it is not a love story. Yet, like Tom, you are taken along with this couple on this journey expecting a love that is never going to end happily. They let you know that from the beginning, like Summer did with Tom, yet you make expectations in your own head rather than take words at face value.