Just Like Heaven opening sequence analysis

Just Like Heaven is a romantic comedy made by Dreamworks. The genre was made apparent early on when the traditional Dreamworks music was replaced with a soft soundtrack, the incidental music is typical of a rom com.

The camera pans down from the dream works logo into a garden in the clouds. This connotes heaven, there is an angelic girl sat in the garden. She has blonde hair and is wearing a dress, this gives her a princess quality to the audience. There are a few shots with dissolves between them implying that she has been there for a long period of time. During this sequence there are titles in pink, blue, yellow and red. These are warm colours that reinforce the nature of the film on the audience.

There is a jump cut away from the garden to reveal the same girl wearing medical clothes in a hospital showing she is a doctor. This job is highly commendable which contradicts the stereotype of the blonde haired blue eyed female. This is reinstated by the fact she is the typical rom com protagonist as it further defy’ s the stereotype as this kind of female is usually vulnerable and insecure. In the following sequence we see how professional she is with quick cuts of her teaching patients and her having good bed side manor joking with patients. But we see all the female doctors conversing in the toilet shot together as they all share male relations but the central character Elizabeth isn’t there initially, hinting that she is single. She walks in and doesn’t contribute much to the conversation, as the other doctors leave they tell her she’s lucky as she only has work to cope with which directly contradicts her viewpoint. This shown by her looking at her reflection with a realisation that she needs change.

  Her professionalism is further highlighted in a discussion with her boss where we find she has a promotion and has worked a 26 hour shift. There’s a jump cut, showing a pass in time, to her in the car park getting into her car. She sees the person she beat to the promotion and makes sure he is ok, highlighting to the audience that she is a good person. When she is driving she’s listening to the song ‘good times roll’ which juxtaposes the immanent future. A lorry comes into frame as a sub POV with the headlights rushing towards the camera before dipping to white which has heavenly connotations.

http://youtu.be/gAljpQSxgJs