Task-Sheet 1: Understanding the Film the Overall Picture

Close Reading the Text – Answer Guide

Task-sheet 1: Understanding the Film – the Overall Picture 1. Where do we see Will mostly? What is he doing? In his flat – watching TV; or in shops, supermarket etc – shopping. 2. How are children generally portrayed in this film? Why is this? In a negative light: Barney is disagreeable; Suzie’s daughter Megan is either grim or crying; Ali is nuts; the kids at school are unfriendly and hostile. Will’s perception is negative; Marcus’s is equally so from a different perception. 3. The tone throughout moves easily from comedy to pathos, from humour to seriousness. Make a list of aspects you found humorous and situations that are serious. Head up two columns: Comic and Serious. Did the serious scenes also include humour? Lists will differ depending on student tastes. It is actually almost an impossible task to separate the comedy from the pathos in this film. Look at the confrontation scene between Will and Fiona in the restaurant: the issue is really serious, the implications are too, yet the whole scene is infused with comedy. When Will calls Fiona “a daft f---ing hippy”, it is both very funny and yet true, and causes Marcus grief. Will’s story at SPAT is funny; the women’s stories are both funny and sad; the dead duck is funny and unfunny; Will manages to create humour even out of suicide. [A good group exercise.] 4. There were two brief fantasy scenes. Can you identify them? Marcus 'sees' Fiona across the pond; Will 'sees' his father in the supermarket. 5. Will is an attractive man. Why does he want to go out with single mums when he so clearly has no trouble finding unencumbered girlfriends? It is relationships without a future he is looking for, women who expect nothing of him. Single women are more likely to expect some sort of commitment. Single mothers are grateful for every bit of attention shown them, which makes them much less demanding than your ordinary, garden-variety girlfriend. 6. Will is shown many times watching TV. What programmes? Why were these ones chosen? Who Wants to be a Millionaire? - money for nothing = Will’s life Countdown – knowledge with no real significance Pet Rescue – see Task Sheet 3 Xena Warrior Princess: It is the women in this film who are the strong characters. NB: don’t go over these answers until after the close reading has been completed. Questions they cannot answer at this stage, they should be able to find answers for as they study the film. Discussion Questions  Who is the “boy” of the title?  Is the film a comedy or a drama? Scenes 1 – 12; DVD 1 – 3 Setting 1. Where is this story set? How do you know? England: the accents, TV programmes, Marcus's Mum earns £400 London: streets, buildings, school, accents. (Later we are told Marcus lives in Islington, which is in north London.) 2. When is it set? How do you know? Contemporary: clothes, car, the state of the art appliances in Will's flat, TV programmes. Probably September: Marcus talks about his ‘new school’, which suggests high school since there is no suggestion of a shift in home. 3. What is the social situation? Will is wealthy enough not to need to work; his accent and his social circle suggest middle to upper middle class. He is unmarried and happy to play the field; his friends are settled with families and worry about him. Marcus's mother is 'alternative' – her clothes, attitudes, lack of a sense of reality; a vegetarian hippie, very health-food conscious. Marcus goes to a state school – Finsbury Comprehensive - where he is a misfit. It seems a typical inner city London school.