I Spy With My Little Eye

 

Jennifer Reeder's Signature Move was definitely not a fan favorite in our class, and for good reason. For example, the dialogue and acting felt forced in many scenes, the leads didn't have much chemistry, and there was an overall lack of character development. Still, even though there were many things about Signature Move that didn't work for me, I think it's worth taking the time to consider the role of looking in this film, especially as it relates to Zaynab's mother, Parveen. 

Parveen lives to look, whether she's watching her Pakistani soap operas or gazing out at the people on the street through the binoculars permanently hanging around her neck. I think her desire to engage with the world as an onlooker rather than an active participant for most of the film may be partly due to her knee pain which makes her mostly chair bound as well as the pain from dealing with the loss of her husband. For her, trauma and disability combine to make looking be her primary activity. 

It's interesting that there were so many shots of people outside from her point of view through the binoculars, but we never get to see what she sees on the TV. Maybe that's just because the director thought the 'film within a film' would draw too much attention away from the main storyline between Zaynab and Alma, but it could also have to do with the fact that the main impact of the soap operas comes from what we hear rather than what we see. The sound on the TV is most crucial when Alma, Zaynab, and Parveen all watch a telenovela and Parveen tells Zaynab that she doesn't need to understand Spanish to know that the two characters are in love. As corny as the scene and the metaphor are, the interplay between sound, visuals, and meaning stood out to me.