You might be thinking to yourself, what do you mean by cheese? Unless we are discussing the deliciousness of hard cheddar or the gooeyness of mozzarella on pizza, then you are in the wrong place. What we are talking about today is the concept of cheesy films. The kind of feel good films that allow you to forget about the struggles of every-day life. The kind that leaves your jaw aching from smiling or laughing too much. A film that you put on to escape and encapsulate yourself into its comedic, romantic or dramatic narratives. As audience we are often seeking out films that are familiar to us. We take pleasure in watching films that give us reassurance in its narrative and most often than most, cheesy films are the ones that are easy to understand. Those are some of the reasons why I love watching those kinds of movies and why this blog exists in the first place.

For each film review conducted on this blog, they will be given a cheese block rating ranging from 1 cheese blocks to 5 cheese blocks. The films will be judged based on their narrative, characters, genre and overall feeling from watching the film.

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We will give the example of Love Actually (2003) to start with and when looking at the film based on its genre, it is already given a 4-5 cheese block rating. But why is that? Well, because of Christmas. The film is a comedy, drama and romance set in the UK, starring an ensemble cast full of iconic British actors, including Bill Nighy, Colin Firth, Liam Neeson and many more. It is one of many Christmas films that is continuously brought back into cinemas, further proving his significance as a Christmas classic. It incorporates its cheesiness into the intertwining story-lines in which the cast of Londoners within the story tackle themes such as love, death, adultery, friendship and family. Set in the buildup towards Christmas we are presented with both happy and sad, cheesy and sentimental, heartbreaking and heart-warming moments.

An example of one scene in the film that completely shattered the hearts of the British public was the present opening scene with Karen (played by Emma Thompson) and Harry (Alan Rickman). Throughout the film as Harry attempts to portray the stereotypical businessman who provides for his wife and two children, we are left with the sad realisation of him committing adultery with his co-worker Mia (played by Heike Makatsch). Considered as being one of the many recognised scenes in the film, we begin with a medium close-up shot with an eye-level angle, in which we see Karen and Mark sat next to the Christmas tree with their two children.

The lighting is low-key, creating a contrast to the light sourced from the lamps and Christmas lights in the background. After Karen opens the gift and discovers it is not in fact the necklace she found previously in the film, we are presented with a close-up shot of her face. A clear reflection of disappointment is apparent through an unnatural smile and calm eyes. Alongside the use of diegetic dialogue she then muffles her words and heightens the pitch of her voice, signifying nervousness as well as as suggesting that she is sad from not receiving the necklace. Although this scene is not necessarily cheesy when relating back to the description used in the first blog post, it does begin with a typical family scene, set in a living room that is fully decked out with Christmas lights and suggests warmth from its use of colours such as gold, white and red. If watching this scene out of context without any prior knowledge of the characters stories, the idea of opening a gift the day before Christmas is something that I would consider to be quite cute and cheesy to do, especially when considering she is opening a gift from her husband. In comparison to the present opening scene, the ‘to me you are perfect’ scene is one of the cheesiest, especially in regards to Christmas films.

Within the scene we are shown Mark (played by Andrew Lincoln) in which he confesses his love to Juliet (played by Keira Knightley). Through the use of a close-up shot of her face as she opens the door, we see her facial expression change from furrowed eyebrows and slightly open mouth signifying confusion, to a smile showing teeth and scrunched up eyes, signifying her happiness. The camera cuts to a mid-shot of Mark holding a pile of white cards as he begins to play the song ‘Silent Night’ through the use of diegetic music from his silver CD player. We are then shown him flipping the cards, in which each of them have numerous written messages. One in particular through the use of a mid-shot shows Mark, as he flips the card to reveal the message saying “To me, you are perfect.”.

The camera then cuts to a close-up shot of Juliet’s face, in which her slightly open mouth and gazing eyes express a sense of sadness.

As the audience watching the scene unfold, our hearts are then broken through another mid-shot in which Mark flips the next card, adding onto the previous message saying “And my wasted heart will love”, the connotations from his poetic message emphasising the acknowledgement of his unrequited love for her and how through the adjective ‘wasted’ the love is in fact useless. The tone then changes when he flips another card, in which we see a close-up shot of a black and white photo of what looks to be a mummified corpse. Previously stating in his last card that he would love her until she looked like that, the cheesiness of the joke is emphasised through a close-up shot of Juliet grinning, signifying happiness towards the cheap joke before changing to a side smirk, suggesting that she understands and shares the same humour as him.

Throughout this scene there is little sound apart from the diegetic sound of ‘Silent Night’, a sweet and touching song whose lyrics such as “sleep in heavenly peace” suggesting Mark’s acceptance to his feelings towards Juliet.

Through the use of a long shot we see Mark walking down the street, before being met by Juliet. The shot then changes to a mid-shot of the pair, in which the space between the two changes from personal distance that is usually reserved for friends to intimate distance, in which Juliet leans in to kiss Mark. The tenderness of the moment can only be met by the lack of reaction from Mark, who simply closes his eyes almost as if to embrace the moment for as long as he can. The space is then shifted back to person, as Juliet runs back inside the house, leaving Mark along in the street.

The last words said within the scene come from Mark through the use of dialogue, in which he tells himself as well as the audience “Enough, enough now.”, acknowledging that it’s time for him to move on with his life, as well as end his unrequited love for Juliet. God help my heartstrings!

So there we have it, a perfect example of what we mean by cheesy. Of course these opinions are mine and if any has any other ideas or opinions regarding this blog post then please feel free to add into the comments section on the home page.