How To Lose A Guy In 10 Days is centred around a middle class magazine journalist, Andie Anderson, played by Kate Hudson, who ends up falling in love with an edgy, rebelious male played by Matthew McConaughley through perusing a forthcoming article.
The opening starts with an uptempo, pop song overlapping Paramount studio logo rather than the studios theme sound itself - this is irregular within movies which automatically sets itself up as a joyous, romantic movie.
Magazine articles appear on the screen in femimine colours, such as yellows, pinks, and purples - yet when the the name titles appears, with white lower case forenames, and colourful, bold surnames, masculine associated colours such as blues appear for the males surnames. The titles, and the magazine backgrounds fly into the screen at a rapid pace to emphasise the joyous, uplifting movie in which this is. The montage of magazines and titles are articles in which the protagonist herself has wrote, we know this as it shows her image as the writer of the article and also shows us clips into her life to show us where she gets her inspiration from and also gives us an insight into her character as she uses flirting to her advantage to get out of situations. When Kate and Matthew's names appear on the title screen, Matthew's is on the left which shows the bias towards males in this industry as you read from left to right so he will be noticed first, even though he's not the protagonist. Although Kate's is slightly higher, she still doesn't have the prominent name due to her being rightly aligned, this illustrates the glass ceiling effect.
Kate Hudson plays Andie Anderson is a stereotypical attractive young lady with her blonde hair, blue eyes, and her maintained physique by her regular gym visits, shown by her attending the gym at the start. The job she has is an aspiring one for the female demographic watching this movie - her job is an abitious, aspirational, glamorous proffession to become a part of this shows the audience for this particular type of movie. All the workers at Andie's office are all attractive to convey the sort of women which get the job and evokes the fantasy of these women finding true love.
The title screen appears, the film begins to play in the middle of the 0 in '10' and we zoom into see the bigger picture. The names of the actors, and producers, are shown over the movie as it plays. We learn further that Andie is dedicated to her work, and wants to better herself through it, yet it also shows the enthusiastic, stereotypical female side before a sound bridge moves us onto the next scene where we meet the antagonist.
Upbeat rock music takes the scene and fits in tightly with the persona on the screen in their leather jacket, on their Harley Davison. This implies the character under the helmet is considered cool, edgy, rebellious, and physically fit. The antagonist conveys himself as a quite flirty, confident male who speaks his mind with the women he works with, which alongside proxemics, articulates his good relations with the female members of staff which is stereotypical of this type of character. The female workers are in formal, tailored wear which contrasts drastically with the antagonists casual wear which shows an irregular power shift in these situations, as the women are conceived as the powerful ones - not the male. Yet again the female audience is portrayed through the magazine in which a female character is reading: 'Composure' which sounds oddly familiar to Cosmopolitan which is quite facetious.
Just Like Heaven is centered around an upper class female doctor played by Reese Witherspoon. Elizabeth, the protagonist, is aspiring her long deserved promotion at work, and wishes she could have a happy relationship with children, like all the other colleagues. When Reese is involved in a car accident, her spirit remains and her aura floats around her old apartment; the new tenant, a lonely architect, soon falls in love with her spiritual presence.
To open the movie a pop song plays behind the trademark screen, which is similar to 'How To Lose A Guy...' thus conveying the associated aspects included within the opening of films to portray their genre. The trademark screen smoothly flows into the movie through the clouds whilst titles slowly fade in and out in female associated colours such as reds and purples. The clouds at the start here emphasizes a utopia, heavenly atmosphere before there is a juxtaposition of the believed protagonist, for the first glimpse at the characters.
'Reese Witherspoon' appears in yellow whilst we see the female persona on the screen, automatically anchoring the name and the face together. Brilliant blonde hair and blue eyes are seen within this female subject, which is the stereotypical attractive woman conveying the female audience. This scene is very feminine due to the floral surroundings implying romance, and love. Dissolve cuts are used here to imply a passage of time as the persona sits in this nirvana.
We cut into reality for the persona, rather than her dreamland, and automatically notice her inspirational job, a Doctor - women aspire for jobs such as these as they were not always around for women to have; during the 1950's equal rights came for women, opening a whole new era for film makers, novelists, ect, as they now had a new audience to appeal to - independent women who wanted to make their own way in life, and support themselves before getting married and having children which completely contrasts to women before this period as their only responsibilities were to be family makers.Incidental music plays behind Elizabeth whilst she's lacking control of her job due to sleep deprivation; she soon changes and becomes professional where the tempo of music switches to: Lust For Life by Iggie Pop. Her multitasking and boost in morale is emphasized by this chosen music, dissolves are used yet again to show her everlasting shift at work, and her determination to continue working due to her lacking other responsibilities unlike the other workers.
The persona suffers from elder sister syndrome within this movie, as her sister match-makes for her, highlighting her sisters worry that Elizabeth will never settle down and have the perfect home family scenario, such as herself.
The persona gets her much anticipated promotion before attempting to leave to her abode - unfortunately a car accident happens when an artificial white, glowing light fades in to take over the screen; the connotations of white imply her passage to the afterlife, her innocence, and her angelic entity. The Golden Gate Bridge of San Francisco appears within the clouds which merge onto the screen, deepening the subject being within the clouds, which highlights her passage further.
The two movie's share many similarities, such as the way they are opened with the trademark image, yet upbeat pop music playing in the back of it. This is very uncommon within most movie genres, other than romantic comedies, which automatically heightens the females anticipation to watch the movie, as they already feel part of it due to relating to the stereotypical female music genre.
Secondly, both of these films are based upon Best Selling American novels, which already targets these films to a mass audience, who will watch the film purely through the enjoyment they received from the novel. This is also very uncommon with most other genres and styles of movies, yet with romance/comedy/romantic comedies, it is completely mediocre.
Another similarity they share is the stereotypical blonde haired, blue eyed, physically fit, attractive, young females as the protagonist - this is due to the audience having their fantasy on the perfect relationship and perfect romance, which is satisfied completely when good looking, high achieving, glamorous females take on the roles they dream of being in.
Furthermore, the two protagonists both have male love interests which is very stereotypical, and could be seen as slightly homophobic due to the ignorance of 21st century relationships, as homosexuality is now accepted and seen everyday. However, this is not necessarily the views of the directors, as their role is to make movies which will appeal to the mainstream target audience - straight, single, Caucasian females from which the majority are interested purely in males.
Moving on, the two subjects have very aspiring professions which many people strive for and would be considered glamorous. This is due to the audience not wanting to see somebody with a low achievements falling in love as it ruins their image of true love and women's independence without males.
Similarly they both share an ambitious nature, and their eagerness to better themselves in the work place. Elizabeth wants a promotion, and Andie wants to write more serious articles on areas such as politics, rather than on make-up tips. This conveys the personas intelligence, and distances them from being 'dumb blondes' which is quite stereotypical of people with their hair colour. This attracts the audience as it emphasizes that looks don't necessarily mean anything, and that you really can not judge a book by it's cover.
These were just interpreted from the opening scene of these two movies, with further watching, there would be many more similarities and differences between the two movies, even though they're both based within romantic comedies.
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