I have written a review on the film ‘Inception’, with the purpose of expressing my opinions on the film clearly, to inform and also to entertain my target audience.
I have used many different linguistic devices in order to appeal to my target audience; the intended reader of my review is primarily film enthusiasts or those that are particularly interested in the psychological genre of film. The primary age of my target audience is anyone aged fifteen upwards, as that is the rating of the film itself. There is a common theme regarding my lexical choices in my film review.For example: ‘fabulous’, ‘tremendous’, ‘captivating’ and ‘exceptional’ are all lexis that can be found in the opening paragraph of my review, I have specifically chosen these lexical items and placed them in my opening paragraph as it exploits the theme of my review from an early stage, it shows the reader my opinion of the film as the lexis all have very positive connotations thus creating a positive feel to the review as they are all similar in range of meaning and purpose, thus creating a textual cohesion as the purpose of my review was to inform the reader of my opinions on the film, by specifically choosing the above lexis I have stated clearly my opinions as they are all synonyms.The idea of creating a lexical field using synonymy was inspired through the same technique being used in my style model.
For example: ‘Thriller’, ‘staggering’ and ‘unpredictable’ are all lexis in my style model, they create a clear sense of what the writers opinion on the film was. I utilised this and used it myself in my review. Due to my audience of film enthusiasts I had to write my review so that it is both entertaining to read, and yet still factual regarding what happens within the film, but without giving too much away and therefore ruining the film for those that have not actually seen it yet. My purpose of the review was also to express my opinions on the film; I did this using emotive language.For example: ‘Overall the film is an exceptional exploitation of what can be achieved when the human mind is put to work’ this sentence within my review states clearly my views on the film and also is entertaining for my target audience to read. As I progressed through the drafting process I made alterations to my review as I did not think it was opinionated enough so that the reader had a clear view of whether I enjoyed and recommend the film, thus in my second draft I made this clear throughout my review.
E. g. : ‘Such is Inceptions brilliance that you undoubtedly will decide to watch the movie again and again, I know I did! ’ I have incorporated the linguistic device of parallelism in my review.‘If the plot line isn’t enough for you to chew on then the stark range of characters most certainly is enough to fill you up! I have integrated the idea of the film being like food in that it is digested and ultimately enjoyed.
Thus I have used lexis that is generally used when talking about food. Such as ‘chew on’ and ‘fill you up’ this device allows the reader to be able to refer to the film in a variety of ways due to the different devices I have used. This I appropriate to my purpose and audience as I need to entertain all my intended readers while also informing them, using the tool of parallelism I was able to achieve this. Another linguistic device I have made use of is pragmatics, ‘directed by the renowned Christopher Nolan’ this is an excerpt from my review.
It states that the film is directed by Christopher Nolan, the pragmatics or shared knowledge is needed to know that this Is a positive thing as the director is known to be exceptionally talented and often produces quality films. Thus by stating that he is the director of the film I am reviewing is showing that an established and world famous director is behind the film; therefore it is natural that the film will be highly entertaining and successful. This is fitting to my target audience as film enthusiasts will want to know who the director is and then will know that Christopher Nolan is a leading director; thus already putting the film in a good light. My style model states the director of the film that is being reviewed too, it is from this I took my inspiration.
