They lied to us.

That's right, I'm about to bash a movie that most of my friends love.

The jerks who made the ridiculous film 500 Days of Summer lied to us right from the beginning.  They thought they were doing us a favor, but really they were just playing to our idealistic yearnings.

See, here's the thing...

The first line of the film says, "This is a story of boy meets girl...  You should know up front that this is not a love story."  But then they give you just that: a love story.

Ah, but the twist!  The twist is (and this doesn't ruin the film) that the people who fall in love in this movie do not end up together.

But it is a love story.  Just not one with the happy ending you wanted.

I hate to say this, and I know it'll make me sound really cynical, but most love stories do not have happy endings.  They just end with someone getting hurt.

As did the love story in 500 Days of Summer.  Hollywood wants you to believe that there is no true love story except the story where you meet "The One", that single person who was made solely for you with whom you will spend the rest of your life.

But that's just not true.  Anytime you truly fall in love, that's a love story.  And as you probably know, most of those end tragically.  No wedding bells.  No climactic kiss on a bridge surrounded by rainbows and cherubs and lambs and flowers and sunshine.

Just a sad and lonely woman gasping for breath through her sobs as she fills her life with work and chocolate.