10 Classic Movies You've Always Misunderstood
4. (500) Days Of Summer - Tom Is An Idiot
This one may not be one that you personally have made, but I know people who have, so let's explore shall we.
(500) Days Of Summer is, for all its spontaneous dancing and distinct visual style, one of the most realistic relationship films ever made, showing an unashamedly bleak look what is normally treated as a fairytale story. Despite being repeatedly told the contrary, Joseph Gordon-Levitts Tom continues to imagine a future with Zooey Deschanel's Summer, leading to long stretches of depression. It's a mature take on the rom com genre, showing us how what we see in movies isn't always the truth.
But I know people who've taken something completely different from it. Before seeing the film it was sold to me as an even more tragic tale, with Summer leading Tom on and being a general (and I'm quoting here) bitch towards him. While thats how, at one point, Tom does take it, the film suggests nothing of the sort; it's all about his stupidity.
In the film, we learn Tom took much of his view on romance from a misunderstanding of The Graduate. Who'd have thought this film would be misread in a similar way too?