Thursday, 24 January 2013

Textual Analysis of Just like Heaven (2008)

Just like heaven is an American Romantic Comedy, realesed in 2005. The director of the film is  Mark Waters, and it is Staring Reese Witherspoon, Mark Ruffalo an Donal Logue. It has won one award and has been nominated once.

At the beginning of the scene, we see the 'Dreamworks' logo which has been placed on white fluffly looking clouds, this is linking in with heaven and a fantasy life. There is a sound track playing over the top, the music is a steriotypical love song which tells the audience that there about to watch a rom com. Next there is an Ariel shot going through the clouds and zooming into the ground where the girl is sitting surrounded by rosies. The camera angle represents angels floating dowin to earth and drifiting in a dream, the colours of the clouds turn to a light pink and red this indicates that love is going to take place, the rosies surrounding the girl are iconic valentines day gifts which also link in with love, dreams and hope. As the camera is panning around the girl, a caption apears on the right side, it says 'Just like heaven' its not till no the audience know that the girl is surrounded by what she thinks is heaven, the words are pink linking in with the love theme. The ladie sitting in the field of roses is wearing a white and pink dress and has short strawberry blonde hair. A hand comes and shakes her on the shoulder as the scene cuts from her fantasy life to her reality life, the song says 'dream' and then the music stops, this indicates to the audience that she has finished daydreaming about what she wants to happen in her life, instead of being at work. The camera angle is a close up of the womens face, we realise from this that she wasnt the women in the dream as she has blonde hair, this links to the fact that maybe she cant put herself in that life yet as she hasnt got a partner. She is wearing a doctors outfit this shows that she is very inteligent and maybe has no time for someone else in her life.

The sound goes into a modern,contempry upbeat song while she is dashing through the hospital, the camera angle is a revearse shot this could show that she has done this all before, the camera pans as the people walk past her talking to her about what she needs to do and what has happened, by now the audience can see that her life is busy. There are cut shots used to show that time has gone by and she has been at work for hour and is still coping, every know and then we see her at the coffee machine, this tells the audience that shes drinking loads of coffee to keep herself awake. The customers that she has to deal with are of all ages and she knows how to deal with everyone of them, there is a man threatening another doctor and she comes along and injects him which makes his sop this shows that she is always helping. The sound is happy and upbeat and the lighting is bright and cheerful, this is putting the hospital in a good light. The scene then cuts  the girl and 3 other women in the toilets, this is a steriotype that all girls go to the toilets together and talk, from the dialoge between all the women, the audience notice that Elizabeth is surrounded by married women with children, talking about how stressful their life is, one of the ladies puts there hand on Elizabeth shoulder, in a patronising way and says 'your so lucky all you have to worry about is work' this shows that they arent appreciative of all the hard work Elizabeth actually puts into her work. There is a mirror shot reflecting Elizabeth face, this is when the viewer sees er real emotion and notices that she is sad and lonely. There is another reverse track of Elizabeth walking through the hospital on the phone to her sister, who appears to be match making her with one of her old friends, her sister uses dialogue and talks about the last man she set her up with, this indicates that shes not lucky when it comes to love. Her sister is married and has kids and a house, this is a steriotype for being happy, sshe is in the kitchen cooking, looking after the children and on the phone. 'You dont know the meaning of busy' this indicates to the audience that her sister cant get around the fact shes working all day everyday and she is always busy, but her sister doesnt see this, she just sees that she goes to work and comes home. Elizabeth sister also says ' beggers cant be chooses' implying that Elizabeth is desperate and she is getting older and no one will want her if she doesnt hurry up. When the phone call has finished the camera angle goes into a Hand Held shot filming from behind Elizabeth showing her listening into the conversation between the two doctors infront, she then walks towards the boss and he sasay 'go home have a break' her body language completly changes at this point she looks lost as in she has never been given a break before and is excited to get home. There is ambient sound of can keys and traffic. On the way home in the car it is raining, which shows that something good isnt going to happen to her. Elizabeth rings her sister to say that her date is running late, but Elizabeth speaks over the top of her telling her about her job promotion she is more bothered about her job than meeting people. She turns the sound track up in the car showing that she is hay abt gng hme and getting ready for a long journey back. The camera angle changes to the subjective point of view and is now looking through the window at a lorry coming her way, all of a sudden the scene turns to white and she goes back into her dreamland again, this leaves the audience wondering if she is dead or not.

 

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