W hen I was 13-years-old, I watched the movie “500 Days of Summer’’ 13 times over 13 days. At the end of this binge, the image of Zooey Deschanel’s bouncy bangs kept me awake with envy. Within the confines of my childhood bathroom, I took a critical look at my own lackluster locks, which a brutally honest classmate once described as “dishwasher brown.” Grabbing the same scissors that my middle school friends and I used to slice a DiGiorno Four Cheese frozen pizza earlier that week, I sheared the ends of my hair, watching snippets of “dishwasher brown” fall into the sink. As the strands circled the drain, I waited for the inevitable transformation into the loveable nymph I had watched on screen. My Motorola Razr flip phone vibrated as one minute passed; the glasses resting on my nose fogged with the breath of anticipation. Once I had gained enough strength to meet the mystical figure sure to be in the mirror’s reflection, I was shocked. I had not transformed into the adorkable ingenue I admired on screen. Instead, an awkward Abercrombie Kids-wearing tween waiting desperately to hear back from competitive Irish dance tryouts stood looking back at me. “ This companionship is merely a daydream of Hansen’s, a desperate attempt to capture the attention of his whimsical crush — Summer Finn . ” In 2007, film critic Nathan Rabin coined the term “Manic Pixie Dream Girl,” (MPDG) within his criticism of the movie “Elizabethtown.” He described Kirsten Dunst’s character, Claire Colburn, as the MPDG archetype. Rabin argued that the MPDG was a fantasy figure, “existing solely in the fevered imaginations of sensitive writer-directors to teach broodingly soulful young men to embrace life and its infinite mysteries and adventures.” Deschanel’s “500 Days of Summer” character Summer Finn played the blueprint MPDG, invading the minds of indie hipsters and middle school misfits alike. “500 Days of Summer” is the story of the relationship betweenthefictional characters TomHansen (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) and Summer Finn (Zooey Deschanel). What seems to be a Pinterest-worthy wonderland of affection, serenaded by an impromptu elevator rendition of The Strokes, is eventually revealed to be a figment of Hansen’s imagination. This companionship is merely a daydream of Hansen’s, a desperate attempt to capture the attention of his whimsical crush: Summer Finn.
- Tom Hansen in 500 Days of Summer
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Vol. VIII
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