She's Out of My League Analysis

 

She's Out of My League is a 2010 American romantic-comedy starring Jay Baruchel and Alice Eve. The film begins with a lengthy shot that begins as a close-up of the main character and pans back into a mid-shot after a minute. It is clear who the focus of the film is on as the only person that the opening shot aims to introduce is the main character, Kirk. Kirk is sitting in the foreground of the shot addressing the camera directly, with a grass, trees and a blue sky in the background. The natural location of the shot sets a romantic tone for the film, with the lead supposedly talking to his love interest in this environment. The audience are made to sympathise for this character through his clear awkwardness (shown through his poor jokes and snorting laugh, associated with the 'nerdy' archetype) and the situation he's in, convincing his ex-girlfriend to start going out with him again after a prolonged "time off." Kirk's costume also helps the audience to sympathise with him, with the name tag over his simple white shirt and tie suggesting he is in a small-time job. The black hoodie he wears over the top also suggests he is not paid a lot of money or does not care about his appearance. A romantic tone to the scene is also provided by the ambient sound, which consists of bird noises and the soft piano background music.

With the next shot, the film suddenly takes the action in a different direction. A long shot from a different angle reveals that the location of the scene is actually just a rooftop in an airport, and the trees and blue sky are actually just on a billboard behind the main character. Audience expectations have already been subverted, showing the comedy part of the film. The background music changes to support this change in tone, with a more upbeat song replacing the piano music. We have a genre convention displayed when we are introduced to the main characters friends, who were really the ones listening to Kirks opening speech. We have the typical cynical sarcastic friend and the stupid but loveable friend introduced to us, which are cliches represented in a lot of films. The audience are also shown the stereotypical lazy slob of a friend which is shown through the dirtiness of his costume. Another convention of a lot of romantic films is the main character being in a relationship with the wrong person at the start of the film before they find the films real love interest. This is shown in the opening scene through the cynical friend, Stainer, talking about his hate of Marnie, Kirk's current love interest. Realism is added to the scene with the ambient digetic sound of airplanes taking off, reminding the audience of the location.