Romance opening scene analysis

He's Just Not That Into You opening scene analysis



The scene opens with a long shot of a playground filled with children; the non-diegetic is a calm happy and innocent sound which plays throughout the scene. we are introduced to a voice narrative as well as the non-diegetic sound who begins with the opening line 'a girl will never forget the first boy she likes' throughout this we are shown a young girl and young boy in a two shot, the audience believe that this is the young girls first crush but suddenly we see the boy push the girl over and calls her 'dog poor' we are shown a close up of the girl upset and crying, wondering why this boy has been so mean to her. As we are shown a long shot of the boy running off, the shot cuts to an over the shoulder shot of the girl with her mother as she tells her about her experience with the young boy. The mother explains to the child that he only did those things because he liked her, and the shot cuts to a close up of the girls face connotes confusion. The narrative suddenly comes back and says 'there it is, that the beginning of our problem' this can be seen a general convention of a romance film as the girl is usually seen upset about a boy and is later comforted by a friend or family member. The narrative is trying to tell the audience that sometimes girls find an excuse to hide the fact that a boy just isn't into them and that if a guy acts horrible to a girl, that means he likes them. 

The shot cuts to a close up of an older woman crying and surround by other woman consoling her, they tell her that the boy who she is crying about likes her too much and is the reason for why he is upsetting her so much, this is also a general convention of a romance film as the woman is consoled by many of her girl friends to make her feel better and the reason they are there is usually because of a boy. the shot cuts to an extreme close up a television, which then cuts two a close up of two girls both staring at the phone. one of the girls is waiting for a boy to ring her and her friend is also consoling her and telling her that he probably just lost her number as an excuse, this is a general cliché of a romance film as the boy is seen as the jerk who upsets the girl and is usually waiting for him to 'call her back'. 

The next shots are woman all over the world finding excuses as to why boys are not acting interested or why they are upsetting them. Girls in all different ages, job roles and cultures are seen doing the exact same thing, consoling each other and telling themselves everything apart from the fact that in some cases he just isn’t that into you. This is a general convention of a romance film as the girls are always seen as the victim and the one who is ended up hurt by the man. the narrative picks up again and tells the audience that woman are scared to admit that he just isn’t that into you and create so many excuses to try and hold onto the thought of a happy relationship. This is a general convention of a romance film, especially for women as practically all of them can relate to at least one of the situations and because of this, it can invite more women to come and watch the film. 

The audience also notice that the narrative is probably going to be one of the main characters of the film as she is the prevalent voice throughout the opening scene. The long shot of the scene in Africa fades to black and the audience are shown the title of the film which was what the narrator was talking about throughout the whole opening scene 'He's Just Not That Into You'.