The Narrative of (500) Days of Summer

Produced by an independent production company, Watermark, (500) Days of Summer (2009) narrated the 500 days of a boy and a girl from when they first met to when their relationship ended as the boy met another girl after the two of them did not work out as partners.

The story was not narrated in a linear form, which most of the classical Hollywood films did. Instead, the screen jumped constantly between the first-half and the second-half of the 500 days. This could create a contrast between the beginning of the characters’ relationship and the failure of it. For example, on days 34 and 282, they went to IKEA together and played with the kitchens and other home appliances, but, the girl, Summer’s responses were totally different between the two. She was cold and irresponsive to Tom when they went there the second time. This demonstrates their relationship was starting to fail. 

In order to let the audience understand the narrative easily, the number of days were displayed before each scene, such that viewers would know the preceding scene was happened before or after the previous one, and would have a rough idea on the sequence of the incidents that were meant to be. 

Along with the narrator’s voice-over comments on what was happening on screen, the display of number of days could be also called as the non-diegetic element that provide audience with essential information to help them understand more about the story.