SPOILER ALERT!
The following post reveals parts of the plot, including the end of the movie 500 Days of Summer. If you have any interest in seeing this movie, I suggest you do so before reading this post.
The movie 500 Days of Summer starts just like any other romantic comedy. The main character, Tom, is an architect major working for a greeting card company where Summer gets a job. A series of events brings them together and at one point they make out in the copy room, Tom falls in love, and Summer does not. Although Summer tells Tom that she does not believe in love and is really just looking for something fun and not any big commitment, Tom never seems to believe it. As the story goes, it skips around between two main parts of Tom's life: when Tom and Summer are together, and after Summer breaks off the romantic part of their relationship. The latter parts consist mainly of Tom crying, drinking, being a jerk to everyone he sees, and engaging in other depressing behaviors. One of the worst parts is that just as he's starting to feel better, he finds out that Summer is engaged.
In the end, Tom ruins his job, depresses his friends, and loses one of the things that he has believed in his whole life: his vision of love and fate. Finally, Tom decides to make use of his education in architecture and goes for a job, where he meets another girl interviewing for the same job. He learns that this girl often frequents one of his favorite spots and has noticed him even though he's never seen her. As he's called into the interview, he asks her name, she replies that her name is Autumn. I wish I could find the actual quote that the narrator says but it's something like this: Tom had learned that there is no such thing as fate, no such things as signs, that everything is just a coincidence. He had learned all these things...almost. Tom ends up asking Autumn on a date, and she accepts, and that's the end of the movie.
This movie has a profound message. It has such ups and downs that the viewer is emotionally exhausted. But when you start to think about it, the pains that Tom went through was vastly important, not just for Tom, but also for Summer. Summer had always believed that love was fake, that it was just made up and that there is not a connecting emotion that strong. And she probably would've continued to think that if she hadn't met Tom and had him teach her about what it was to truly care about someone. After Tom finds out that Summer is married Tom tells her that he was wrong about love, that he understood why she never believed in love in the first place. She laughs and replies "You weren't wrong, Tom. You were just wrong about me." If it hadn't been for knowing Tom and seeing someone truly care for someone else, she would not have ever thought about falling in love, and she probably would not have been truly happy.
But it also helped Tom. During a meeting at the greeting card company Tom worked at, Tom exploded, telling everyone in the meeting that what they did was terrible, that they didn't let people express their own feelings. He then quits his job. Later, he finally decides to make use of his architectural education and interviews for well-paying jobs that make use of his skills. Also, he ends up meeting another girl who may end up being the girl Tom always wanted. If it hadn't been for Summer breaking things of with him, he would still work at the greeting card company and squander his skills.
This is a great movie, and if you haven't seen it I would highly recommend it. The lesson it teaches is very true. No matter what hardships you're experiencing, learn from it. Push through. Meet new people. And NEVER stop believing in love.
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