Date of release: 2 June 2010
Name of director: Noel Clarke, Mark Davis
Genre: Thriller - Crime
The movie includes the typical conventions of a thriller – crime movie. Thrillers heavily stimulate the viewer's moods such as; a high level of anticipation, ultra-heightened expectancy, ambiguity, apprehension, suspense, excitement, tension, fright. Literary devices such as cliff-hangers are used extensively. The use of restricting important information from the viewer and fight/chase scenes are common methods in all of the thriller subgenres.
Common methods in crime thrillers are mainly ransoms, captivities, heists, revenge, and kidnappings. More common in mystery thrillers are investigations and the whodunit technique. Common elements in psychological thrillers are mind games, psychological themes, stalking, confinement/death-traps, horror-of-personality, and obsession. Elements such as fringe theories, false accusations, paranoia, and sometimes action are common in paranoid thrillers.
The film 4.3.2.1 portrays the conventions from above such as captivities, when one of the girls Shannon is help captive, the film delivers the whodunit technique although it’s kind of obvious in the film who has stolen the diamonds. The film also deals with the subject of death with the character Shannon when she considering committing suicide.
The equilibrium of this film is when the girls are meeting at the coffee shop to catch-up with each other. But the audience could argue that the film doesn’t have equilibrium as it starts with a disruption as in the opening sequence, the girl is holding the gun to her friend ‘Shannon’ as she is preparing to commit suicide. This leaves the audience to suspense as it jumps to a scene which would be perceived to be the equilibrium which the girl is portrayed to be in a state of normality.So ultimately they haven’t followed Todorov’s equilibrium model but at the same times they have addressed the typical convention of a crime-thriller by creating suspense, ambiguity, apprehension for the audience.
This is the scene when ‘Shannon’ is trying to commit suicide. The film uses a restricted form of narrative because the audience is unaware as to why she is doing this due to the narrative being non- chronological as they have shown this at the very beginning as part of the opening sequence.
This is the scene when the 4 girls are catching up over coffee in the café and they are interacting in conversation, which the audience would suggest to be the equilibrium as this is the girl’s state of normality.
They use an unusual way of applying the ‘Levi-Strauss’ model of binary opposition in the movie as through new equilibrium where the ladies are reunited after saving Shannon and suggest a break to America, when they are on a plane the camera progresses to showing that their nemesis is also on the plane, without them being aware but the way each of the characters have been portrayed is as if they have switched roles.Ultimately the use of binary oppositions in the film is manipulated and unconventional is order to follow the typical convention of a thriller.
The use of this ‘quote'' good girls cum last p.s love you...all!'’ in the film and it being used at the end of the film makes the audience abit confused as you usually see the good side of a battle or a situation win and come first at the end but this quote suggest the opposite so it is manipulating the ideas and connotations surrounding good and bad. Also, as it was written by one of the girls who are supposedly meant to be the good ‘victims’.
The film is shown in a non-chronological order as the audience sees the different viewpoints of the women from the same day, so it’s going from start to finish four consecutive times instead of going the normal beginning to end. So it’s a reoccurrence on some of the shot we view in the movie.
Part two:
The way the characters are portrayed in the movie though the use of mise-en-scene is exaggerated but also stereotypical through the use of props and costume. For example the two girls in bikini’s and lingerie being portrayed as sex symbols cater to the typical conventions in the way they portray the girls in the film. The use of the restricted narrative is also key to the representation of the characters as the characters are portrayed to be teens and a typical teenager is not always open with parents and friends and sometimes hides stuff especially when they re going through something emotionally, which I believe is enforced through the restricted narrative. The use of mise-en-scene contributed to the representation of the age of the characters in this film as the use of setting / location.
The way the director has used mise-en-scene to represent the age and ethnicity of the characters has been shot in a stereotypical way to address the typical conventions of this genre, with the use of costume in the film, for example when Cassandra is being chased by the boys she kidnapped she being protected by a group of black people so it look like the boy is outnumbered and inferior to them. They are dressed in dark colours and hoodies and tracksuits which suggest to the audience that they are in a gang and by ‘Cassandra being dressed in a hoodie it helps her blend in.
Also, the way light is used in the film as the majority of the scenes are shot in quite dark, sinister locations as well as at night time to address the conventions of mystery, ambiguity.
The storyline of the film caters to the typical conventions of a thriller – crime movie and what usually a film of this genre should contain. The film has high level of anticipation, which leaves a lot of ambiguity especially as each time the storyline is changed to another girls point of view, it end with an enigma code which leaves the audience wondering why the girl has been let in that situation before it is revealed through another girls point of view. For example when the audience sees Shannon upset and distraught and basically at breaking point when it comes to the end of her point of view but as the film develops through Joanne’s point of view at the end of the film we get to see why Shannon is so upset. So by doing that the audience was left in suspense which is following the convention of a typical thriller-crime film.
The use of camera, editing, sound and mise-en-scene in this film caters to the typical conventions of a thriller-crime film. Through the use of editing such as the montage used throughout the film it help the audience understand the rapid fast paced lives that the girls have obtained due to their involvement in the diamond robbery. Also, through the use of non-diegetic sounds at the end of the film suggest somethingthreatening to compliment the open narrative which also leaves room for a sequel. The use of close-upshots at the beginning of the movie when the girls are catching up at the café is so that they can be introduce as the main characters to the audience. The use of long shots especially in the chased scenes it helps the audience understand the location they are in. The use of the off-screen diagetic sound in the kidnapping scene, when the character Cassandra captures the boys who were stalking her, we hear the pain which Cassandra was going through the voices of those enlisting her pain. The use of straight cuts in the majority of the film gives it a more realistic feel to it in the attempt to make the audience connect with it a bit more.
