12 Brilliant Movies That Completely Lied What They Were About

10. (500) Days Of Summer

The Lie: It's a quirky, cutesy romantic comedy revolving around two hip, attractive people you wish you could be! They always say witty things and go to interesting places, and boy, you've really gotta sympathise with Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) when that b*tch Summer (Zooey Deschanel) won't be his girlfriend. How mean!

The Reality: (500) Days of Summer is one of the most subversive romantic comedies ever made, even though its true meaning hides in plain sight, with the opening declaration, "this is not a love story." You see, Tom is infatuated with Summer, or rather, an idealised, non-existent version of Summer that he has created in his mind, and it's precisely because Summer is aware that he's placing her on a pedestal and not seeing her for who she is that she'll never pull the trigger on a relationship.

The film, as unfolding from Tom's perspective, appears to garner him sympathy, but when you consider the full context of their time together, he's pretty pathetic. This follows through to the ending, where he meets a new girl named Autumn, and we're left to ponder whether Tom is going to literally repeat the same cycle of idealisation once again. This is a shining example of a film that hid its deeper and more interesting theme slightly below the surface so that it could still be marketable to a mass audience in an appealing way.