In case you haven't already heard, I sort of loved the movie 500 Days of Summer but also sort of hated it for its attempts at making me feel like my boyfriend doesn't wear enough sweater vests and for my unexplainable secret desire to see the couple in it fail. Other than the female lead being a coldhearted jerk, I couldn't pinpoint anything specific that caused me to not feel much attachment to them, but this morning on the train, I realized that what made me roll my eyes about them was the elevator scene, shown here in the opening of the trailer:
The problem is that I'm jealous. This exact scene is the stuff of my emo, music-fanatic, high school dreams, and it's never happened to me. It's especially present when I'm on the train in the morning with my head buried in a magazine to try to forget that the backpack of the guy behind me is slamming into me every time the track curves; I'll hear a faint beat beside me and look over to see a floppy-haired twentysomething in plaid with giant noise-blocking headphones nodding along to whatever he's listening to. I immediately assume that we have everything music-related in common, because my taste is immaculate and therefore all desirable people my age have the same taste I do.
I'll lean in to see if I can recognize the vocals, but I never do. Not once. And it's not like I have a limited knowledge of bands here. And it's not like I would do anything even if I did recognize the song. I can't imagine a scene where I'd tap the guy on his shoulder and say, "You like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club? I like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club! Do you wanna, like, skip work and go frolic around Ikea in 50-era clothing or something?" It seems even less likely that he'd take off his headphones, turn to me, and say, "Pardon me, but did I just see a spark of familiarity with this band in your eyes? Should we, like, go sit on a park bench and sketch the architecture of Los Angeles onto each other's arms?" But just knowing that someone out there is listening to and loving the same thing I do makes me feel more at home.
So this 500 Days of Summer elevator scene just doesn't seem realistic to me. And because of my jealousy, I'm going to claim that it's stupid to base an entire relationship on liking the same song, anyway.
– Katie Ett, unapologeticallymundane.com
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