this is not a love story

Yesterday I watched Michel Gondry's Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) the second time (or the third time?), and I still find it quite amazing although I already know the plot. What comes to my mind, however, is another hit film, (500) Days of Summer (2009). Just like the quote from (500) Days: "This is a story of boy meets girl, but you should know upfront, this is not a love story." Well, what are you talking about? These two films are two of my favorites in romance genre! But the point is, they are not typical Hollywood love stories.

 

Usually in Hollywood a love story will be: a boy meets a girl, they fall in love, they fight and he needs to cool down (or actually she has someone else), he realizes she is the one (or she does), he apologizes, she forgives him, they live happily ever after, the end. Or to be more precise, this is the most common pattern for romantic comedy. No matter what happens in the films, we know Tom Hanks will be with Meg Ryan and Julia Roberts will be with Richard Gere.


(You may want to stop reading if you haven't seen these films, or it'll just kill all the interests.) These two films, however, show the process from falling into a relationship to leaving it. In Eternal Sunshine, Joel (Jim Carrey) meets a girl, Clementine (Kate Winslet), but the story begins with him going to a memory-erasing clinic to erase the memory about her in order to deal with their break-up. Similarly, (500) Days also shows quite early in the film that the relationship between Tom (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer (Zooey Deschanel) doesn't work out. During the films, what we see is basically how a relationship changes from two people happily in love to a sour, cruel, and ugly situation.

Interestingly, how they tell the stories influence their tones. In Eternal Sunshine, Joel starts his journey from the end of his relationship with Clementine. As he goes through the process, more and more sweet memories come to his mind. He starts to feel regrets and tries to protect the memories.

I really love the parts when Joel hides Clementine into the memories of his childhood, and how she comforts him (as being his babysitter and little friend).

The characters of Joel and Clementine are portrayed so vividly. Joel is conservative, organized, and sensitive; Clementine is so wild, impulsive, and anxious. (Clementine: "I'm just a fucked-up girl who's lookin' for my own peace of mind.") How will these people so different get together? This is just the subject we face in everyday relationships. In the end, the two decide to start over even though they know they may follow the same road and the relationship will fail again. What makes love so bitter sweet is how we know we may get hurt but still choose it.

(500) Days also talks about love and its cruel truth, its disappointment and its misinterpretation. However, it goes from the sweet memories to bitter memories. Tom at first can not accept the truth that Summer has left him. He keeps wondering what went wrong until his sister Rachel (Chloe Moretz) told him to look again, and this time not only look at the good stuff. He realizes that real relationships aren't like movies or pop songs; the princess only exists in fairy tales or Disney.

The most interesting part is the changes of the characters. Tom, who used to believe in destiny, true love, and soul mate, turns into a person that believe in nothing but coincidences. On the other hand, in the end Summer comes to believe that Tom is (or was) right: everything is meant to be.

Both of the films show the bittersweet of love, the blindness of it and how we see our own fantasies in it. In fact, most of the time we only see something we really want to see, and the parts we neglect often turn to be true. This is not a love story, but this, is a story about love.