Wicker Park

1. Wicker Park Devin Joseph Hyder Shuja Justin Gutierrez Michael Young

2. Themes/ Message • Love • Lust • Greed • Disappointment • “In the end its not your eye that must decide” • What you see is not necessarily what you want its what you believe • “looks can be deceiving”

3. Plot • Alex sees Matt • Matt sees Lisa and Alex sees that Matt like Lisa • Matt stalks Lisa; Lisa finds out • They start dating and fall in love • Matt wants Lisa to move in • (Test of Love)

4. Lisa goes to Europe and gives letter to Alex to give to Matt • Alex sabotages Lisa and Matt’s relationship • Matt goes to New York for 2 years and meets Rebecca • Matt comes back to Chicago and sees Lisa at a restaurant • Matt starts to follow the trail for Lisa, finding Lisa’s compact in her hotel • He finds out that Lisa has a stalker.

5. Matt finds Lisa’s house, and places a note which Alex sees • Alex sabotages this as well • He sees Alex and sleeps with her • Matt thinks Lisa is not in Chicago anymore • Matt wants to go to China • That night, Luke and Matt go to Alex’s show • Matt goes to Lisa’s place looking for Alex • Alex goes with Luke home

6. Matt calls Luke the next day • Matt hangs up, and Lisa calls Luke and tells him that she wants to meet with Matt • Matt buys Alex shoes that are 8 ½ and they don’t fit Alex so Matt knows Lisa has been lying

7. He leaves and meets up with Luke • Matt goes with Luke into the restaurant, and Matt sees Alex there and realizes that she was lying this whole time • Luke, then, tells Matt to meet up with Lisa at 1500 hrs and that Matt should know where • Matt goes to Wicker Park, but he missed Lisa • He goes to the airport and he sees Lisa there • Alex calls Lisa and Rebecca interrupts Matt’s meeting

8. Matt tells Rebecca that he loves someone else, and they break up • Matt goes over to Lisa, and Alex explains everything to Lisa over the phone • Lisa hangs up, she cries • Matt sees her crying, and slowly creeps up behind her, crying as well • Lisa turns around and cries in happiness • They hug and kiss

10. Plot • Matt and his fiancee are discussing the business deal to go to China. • Matt goes to the bathroom and hears Lisa talking to someone which leads to a flashback • When Matt sees Lisa for the first time. • He gets a keycard to Lisa’s hotel room • He sees the compact in the bathroom which leads to another flashback, which is when they first start to date

11. Matt is then is directed to Lisa’s apartment • He finds out then that Lisa has a stalker named Daniel and Matt leaves a letter for Lisa. • Matt then gets the courage to go into Lisa’s apartment. • Then he realizes that someone else is in the apartment and the girl says that she is Lisa. • Alex enters a flashback to the beginning of the movie.

12. This is where we learn that Alex isn’t who she says she is • Then we learn that Alex liked Matt long before he met Lisa • Then Lisa, Matt, Alex, and Luke start calling each other. • Matt buys Alex the same shoes he bought Lisa and realizes that Alex was lying the entire time

13. Matt then starts to follow Alex. • Matt finally realizes that Alex was the one who sabotaged his entire relationship with Lisa. • Matt then goes to Wicker Park to meet Lisa • He doesn’t find her there so he goes to the airport and finds Lisa. They embrace and kiss and the movie ends.

14. Wicker Park: A unique love story show faults in human nature regarding love. • Greed • Selfishness • Desire/ lust and the things one will do for it. • The structure helps develop the story in a way that is simple yet with a complex plot.

15. Motifs • The color red: love, desire, memory • Lisa a the dance studio (9:45) • The shoes: truth • The compact: the bond of Lisa and Alex • Split screen: Matt’s inner thoughts and desires, contrasting opinion

17. Motifs (continued) • Mirrors: truth • Compact, shoe store, bathroom etc. • Flash lighting: epiphany/ revelation • Blurred lighting: Stream of consciousness/ memory

18. Parallelism • Lisa tells Alex to go meet Matt without knowing who he was • Matt goes to meet Lisa after seeing her through the camera • Matt puts the shoe on Lisa at the store and then again for Alex at her apartment. • Matt consistently goes to Wicker Park to only meet Lisa

19. Characters • Matthew: Main character involved in love conundrum • Lisa: Main love interest • Alex: Object of confusion. Main character. • Luke: Minor character, builds suspense • Rebecca: Minor character and an obstacle for Matt’s obsession • Daniel: Helped Alex step into Lisa’s shoes

20. Subplots • Rebecca and Daniel’s relationship allow for the plot to thicken. • Luke and Alex’s create suspense and interest within the story.

22. Power Point • Wicker Park was told from an objective point of view. • It didn't focus only on one character, but on many characters in the film. • The movie wasn't biased toward any one character and it was told from a kind of restricted point of view.

23. Throughout some of the movie we don't know as much as the characters know • As the movie progresses, we start to learn what the characters know and then we learn more that what the characters themselves know. • In the beginning we hear a girl talking on a phone in a restaurant and the audience doesn't know who that person is, but the main character, Matthew, does know who she is.

24. As the movie goes on we learn who the girl is and how the main character knows that person. • This is the point in time when the audience has restricted knowledge, we only know what the main character knows.

25. Then as the movie progresses further, the audience starts to gain unrestricted knowledge, in the fact that we start to learn who all the characters are. • The audience starts to learn who Alex is, and how she fits into the love story between Matt and Lisa. • The audience knows this information, but Matt and Lisa don't.

26. Important Scenes • When Alex is reversing her make-up to it shows who she really is. 1:02:57 • The entire scene when Luke, Matt, Alex, and Lisa were calling each other. 1:26:40 • When Matt buys the shoes for Alex and learns that she isn't the person she says she is.1:34:40

27. 4. When Luke and Matt go into the restaurant and Matt sees Alex there and realizes that Alex was lying the whole time. 1:36:18 5. When Alex was talking to Lisa about Matt's handkerchief and Alex got all crazy about the handkerchief.1:07:00

28. Setting • The restaurant is the melting pot of all the characters throughout the movie. All of them were in the restaurant at least once in the movie. • Wicker Park is the area where true love is expressed. It is where Alex, Matt, and Lisa can express their love.

29. Motivation • The motivation for the story is to present how love can make you do crazy things. We see this in Matt and Alex’s excessive stalking, and in Alex’s acts of tremendous jealousy. The movie brings to light of an enhanced mentality of human nature. Throughout the trials of misfortune that Matt dealt with, he eventually gets his happiness, leaving us with the film’s statement of “love can conquer all.”

30. The director shoots the movie in the present. He also shoots it at particular moments when something is about to happen for each character. • These moments pulls the movie back to the past for a deeper understanding of what is going on. Each of these flashbacks, the viewer discovers more about the personality, motivations, and desires of each character.

31. The director does this in order to make you think. He makes it so that when you watch it, you will be left in a clueless state, wondering what is actually going on. The mental exercise of fitting the scenes in chronological order and guessing how the gaps will be filled obscures the fact that we know very little about their relationship. Through this craving for explanations, you get sucked into the movie and more curious for what is to come.