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The Morning Guy Analysis

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The film, “The Morning Guy” by Mark W. Gray was released in 2002. Despite the film

being short, it helps to illustrate the lives of the modern-day families. The film encompass a

deeper allegorical meaning. The director started working on the film and his intention was to

make a short illustrative movie of his life. Seemingly, Gray was thinking of ideas of how he

would create a captivating and intriguing film without spending much on the film. According to

his directory comments, he wanted to pick a subject, explore it using his home space and digital

camera (Gray, 2004). Nonetheless, the results of his creativity was an impressive film from

different aspects. This paper will look at the setting of the movie on and off-screen as well as the

character roles.

Primarily, “The Morning Guy” turned out to be an anecdote detailing the real family life

of the director on-the-screen. This is because Gray used his camera and house to make a comic

film without his realization. Besides, he also creates a humorous side on-the-screen, making the

film to be properly grasped with the intended film meaning. More importantly, “The Morning

Guy” touches a rather popular and serious issue in the modern-day society; marital

dissatisfaction and underemployment which serves as the leading causes of divorce around the

world off-the screen. The film initially starts with several static shots that demonstrates the

average morning for a typical married couple. On-the-screen, the lighting, music, and fresh

coffee are attributes that showcase parts of a normal happy family life. These are mostly

appearing like well-put pieces of a puzzle.

On-the-screen, there are both diegetic and non-diegetic sounding aspects that make the

film peaceful and cheerful. Minimal camera movement in the film shows that there exists a

seemingly relationship stability. The typical five minutes morning routine in film shows that “he

is a morning person and she is not” (Gray, 2004). To illustrate the relationship in the film, a shot
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transition is effectively done through cutting. One shot replaces the next and with the help of

such a technique, this adds to the appeal of the film by creating a typical American family house,

with a car and a yard. Most of the shots in the film are short, but still, they are long enough to

allow the audience to understand all the elements and appreciate the overall atmosphere in the

film that the shots were initially designed to create. This film can be classified as powerful since

most viewers are able to relate to at least a character in the film.

The film, off-the-screen shows how social pressure distresses the modern day married

couples. In earlier times, husbands were primarily expected to be suppliers and breadwinners.

The wives were only used to staying at home. These roles have consequently changes. Women

have an opportunity to choose what they want to do, and have careers. They can choose to

become entrepreneurs or remain as housewives. Nonetheless, the men are still subjected to

pressure of being successful and still being the breadwinners for their families. The film also

shows an off-the-screen social pressure that is liable for creating security issues in families and

especially when a husband is unemployed. Social pressures are known to create an inner

unhappiness. Such a void in a man’s life cannot be filled by a working opportunity. This leads to

women ending up with husbands who are constantly suffering internally, adding pressure to the

home environment.

The use of information and evidence in this film helps the director to control the audience

access to the feelings of the characters. Notably, the director uses exaggeration to show how life

off-the-screen can be for the married couple. In the movie’s world how the characters perceive

each other is critically expounded in off-the-scene and makes the audience to grasp the

implication that a film can be more about alignment and misalignment of the characters. In this

film, Gray uses misalignment of expectations between the husband and the wife. This
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misalignment helps to accentuate the existence of marital discomfort and an atmosphere of

dissatisfaction of the wife. The wife being a “not a morning person” is also misaligned with the

husband who likes the mornings. As the film ends, Gray achieves his goal by demonstrating how

an average family looks like, their insecurities, and what happens after long period of marriage.

“The Morning Guy” characters include Bill A. Jones, a radio professional who started

pursuing his career in the 1980s. His role is of a husband who has a rather unusual way to

express himself in his daily life. Jones speaks as if he works as a media personality by the way he

comments on every event. He talks non-stop, starting together with the alarm clock. This is

portrayed as a way of his creativity, and most likely as a consequence of suffering from

underemployment (Gray, 2004). He has developed a habitual tendency of doing nothing for

hours drives his wife crazy, making her leave. Her life is quite unbearable since the alarm clock

is seemingly not the device she puts beside her bed, but his husband, who talks continuously. Bill

A. Jones can also show a character of a man who has found a favorite way of expressing himself.

Unfortunate for him, pretending to be a radio commentator cannot be tolerated for a long-time.

This is why his marriage finally ends after a long journey.

The second character Gray demonstrate the tendency of expectations from the society as

a husband. In the modern society, Gray’s marriage has its problems. These are some problems

that are common in most households. For instance, his marriage with Eileen D. Thomas ends up

in a divorce after they had been together for fourteen years. There are different forces that can be

blamed for the failure in his marriage. First, the underemployment of Gray is a leading factor

which continuously increase marital dissatisfaction, ultimately leading to divorce (Rhodes,

2003). Research from sociological studies show that, statistically, among the married couples

and especially where the husband is unemployed, a divorce is most likely to be instigated by
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both parties. In this film, Gray’s unemployment is a negative and contributing factor to

continuous marital misunderstandings. It affects both the husband and the wife.

In conclusion, “The Morning Guy” shows two different sides of family life. There is the

outside that is both quiet and peaceful and looks optimally good, and the inner side that has all

the conflicts and issues. In the inner side of the married life, there is divorce. However, on the

outside, there are bursts and ruptures. Despite the film being short, it demonstrate the peculiarity

of the director’s style and his capacity to create a thoughtful illustration for few minutes that

manipulate the audience’s thoughts and feelings. This film is appropriate for almost all viewers

since it offers a deep illustration of modern day issues in most families. This Gray film could

also be of key interest from a role change theory as it illuminates a change in the societal

inclination on the expectations of men and women. Thus, despite being short, this film exploits

the impacts of underemployment and marital problems and showcase just how much wives can

tolerate from their husbands.

References

Mark W. Gray, “The Morning Guy”, Rocketpictures, 2004, Web.

Steve Rhodes, “The Morning Guy”, IMDb, 2003, Web.