Holden, the more conservative of the two is on the right, while Alyssa,
the more liberal, is far to the left of Holden. The next time the two meet is at
a bar, once again. This time Alyssa invited Holden to come see her. When Alyssa
goes up to the stage and sings a song with her old band, she dedicates a song to
a special someone. Holden automatically thinks that it was him. After Alyssa
sang a throughty rendition of a Debie Gibson tune (Chasing Amy) she signaled for
someone special to come closer to the stage. Holden thinking that it was him
smiled to himself like a smitten little school boy only to see Alyssa run off
stage and passionately kiss another woman. When I wrote this scene, I couldn't
wait to see it with an audience - particularly my audience, Smith said (View
Askew.com) when he was interviewed about this movie. He wanted to show how
people think that a relationship can go one way, then drastically turn another
way. The way he proved that was how he dealed with the soroundings of the club.
Once again the framing was mainly focused on Holden and Alyssa when they first
bumped into each other at the club. The camera was stationary with a middle shot
of the bar in the back ground. The First Alyssa enters the scene from the right,
soon followed by Holden from the left. The lighting for this scene was the
lighting from the club, low dingy restaurant style lighting. Once again in this
scene there are no close ups or P.O.V. shots to make the viewer see how the
couple interacts with each other. This is a very popular shot in this movie, it
is used in almost every sequence in the movie involving Holden and Alyssa. But
as it goes on, Alyssa exits the frame as she is beckoned on stage, then the
infamous scene when she is finished when she kisses another woman. As soon as
Holden sees this, they show point of view shots of him looking around the bar
realizing that in actuality, he is in a lesbian bar. The shots are quick and
sparatic with quick shots of him turning his head turn to see two women. Another
scene where the cinematography is important, is the scene where Holden finally
admits his feelings to Alyssa. The scene goes on as they are in Holden's car
while he is driving her home.
The camera is in the back seat of the car. The
camera is not held stationary and has sparatic movements and shakes going back
and forth from Holden to Alyssa. Until the car comes to a screeching halt. The
camera angle quickly changes to showing from the front of the cabin in the car.
This is where he admits to her that he can no longer hold his feelings in any
longer. As he tells her everything, this is the first time that they use a close
up between toe two. First they show a close up of him so show how sincere that
he is in his feelings, and while he is talking the angle quickly changes to her
to show how she has a look of shock and almost like she is appalled. Quickly to
cut back to him, still close up, to him again with the same look like he is
almost kidding and relieved that he had finally gotten this off of his chest.
Then a close up of her as she leaves in a hurry from the car, while Holden is
close to follow. When they are outside of the car, the scene goes back to the
way the camera was in the back of the car, sparatic camera work that added a
stand off atmosphere to the whole scene in general. It shows that this is a
trivial time in each of their lives, and a decision from one choice to the other
could change their lives forever. They showed this perfectly with the camera
work of going back and forth between one side and the other. Once again Holden
is on the right side, saying how every relationship has a period of adjustment.
While on the left is Alyssa telling him that it is not that easy, she is gay,
and telling him changing her sexual preference can turn her whole world into
upheaval. Using unsteady and sparatic camera work shows that her life is as
hectic as it is, it does not need any more changes. But as Holden walks off
camera in one direction, and Alyssa walks off in the other, she quickly runs
back into the scene and passionately kiss each other and while they do that, the
camera work becomes stable once again. After they decide to try to change their
lives, everything is going wonderfully as they find out that they complete each
other. Until one day when Holden finds out about her past sexual experiences
that make him feel like he is inferior to her and that she has been lying to him
all along. The scene is in a hockey arena, as Holden and Alyssa watch a local
team play. While the scene is going on, Holden alludes that he knows something
about her past. Till finally he asks her about her high school nickname,
Fingercuffs. As soon as he says that, a quick cut to the hockey game shows that
the home team has scored, showing that he has made a first strike in the
conversation.
