The day the earth stood still.
I decided to focus on the film; the day the earth stood still, which is the 2008 remake of the original 1951 film, which was directed by Scott Derrickson.
I have focused on the character 'Helen Benson' who is played by Jennifer Connelly, and I have chosen a 5 minute section of the film where the character receives a phone call from the Government, which then sets off the whole film. Before this scene everything in her life seems normal, she is a middle aged woman, Widowed with a young child around 8/9 called Jacob, she has a job as a university teacher, she is also considered as a scientist, The child’s father was a Solider and was killed in action when Jacob was young, this made Jacob feel deserted by his dad and blames his mum for his dad's death, so much so that he doesn't even show love for his mother, by saying 'Helen' in stead of 'mom'.
At first, Helen is going around in her normal business, trying to get her son downstairs for dinner, then as the phone rings, she starts to rush out of the door we make the assumption that she is rushing so that she can answer the phone, this is a normal thing to do, and this makes it seem more realistic. As she is on the phone she starts to serve out the dinner which makes it seem as through she is trying to work through her daily jobs and fitting everything in, as she answers the phone it seems as though its a normal business calls, but then soon the questions seem to get more demanding and unusual, and as this happens Helen starts to slow down what she is doing showing that she is concerned and confused about what is happening, trying to make sense of it, the actress does this so that you see her concern, confusion and achieves this by using slow and unsure movements, and using little change in facial expressions.
At First She doesn't notice the blue and red flashing lights coming through her curtains, but after she does notice she becomes more alarmed, she shows this b standing stiff and rigid, and her voice becomes calm but urgent and pleading for information. She then walks slowly and stiffly towards the window this shows she is not quite sure what to do, and is concerned, she hesitates in pulling the curtain away from the window to look out, and gasps when there is a loud knock at the door, even though she had been told by the person on the phone, this shows that she had her guard up, and also scared, She try’s to walk casually towards the door, but she has an urgent and protective edge to it, and she reaches for the door before reaching it, and then opens the door slowly only looking around the edge of the door at the last minute with a shocked and scared expression on her face. As the man at the door starts urgently talking, she looks shocked and sounds daises as she asks 'Am I under arrest?' as he starts to rush in telling her she needs to go with them, she opens the door to let them see that she has a child who needs to be cared for which without saying out loud tells the man that she cannot go with them.
Through out this scene Jennifer Connelly reacts perfectly to everything, she creates tension and unsettledness. She creates the right emotion towards everyone so that you can tell who she is talking to, and pulls off an amazing performance. Although I believe that the film isn't one the best films, I think that Jennifer creates the right balance between what emotion she is trying to use, and that makes the film more enjoyable and realistic.
