10 Movie Scenes Everyone Always Gets Wrong
6. Tom Has (Probably) Learned Nothing At The End - (500) Days Of Summer
Though (500) Days of Summer announces not to be a love story at the very beginning, it's also fair to say that many viewers seem to misinterpret the movie's emotional throughline, blaming Summer (Zooey Deschanel) for her and Tom's (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) breakup despite Tom clearly having unrealistic expectations from the outset.
Even Gordon-Levitt himself called Tom "selfish" in a recent interview, agreeing that he is effectively the "villain" of the movie.
But the end of the film goes one step further by having Tom move on from Summer and meet a new romantic interest named Autumn (Minka Kelly).
While a superficial reading would say that this a mere cute wink to the audience that Tom has moved on to someone new, an altogether darker interpretation is that Tom actually hasn't grown as much as he thinks.
The fact that the film's ongoing day counter resets from 500 to 1 seems to suggest he's going to repeat a similar cycle with Autumn.
This isn't to say Tom learned nothing from his time with Summer, but that he may well fall into a similar pattern of unhealthy, obsessive romantic behaviour with his new prospect. Again, it isn't a love story.