A film designed for sound

I recently watched 'A Fantastic Fear Of Everything'. Having already seen the film when it was on at the cinema, I payed more attention to the technical side of the film, and the sound design in particular.

For the first half of the film, the story is told mainly through narration by Simon Pegg's character, Jack. The narration is told as though Jack is narrating for his own entertainment. Similarly, the sound in this first half - partly because most of the time, Jack is the only character in the scene, and partly for dramatic effect - is heard from Jack's perspective.

In these scenes, there tends to be focus on individual sounds, such as creaking sounds as Jack is paranoidly convinced someone is creeping around in his flat. These sounds get louder and more layered to build up the emotional tension in the scene. Just like Jack normally loses focus and is brought back to his senses, there is usually a disruption in the soundtrack before we are brought back to hearing real-world sounds, such as the sound of rain outside Jack's window.

Having read Randy Thom's article, 'Designing A Movie For Sound', I noticed that the script was clearly written with a strong consideration of sound. The most obvious example of this is a scene in which Jack walks into his bedroom as psychedelic music begins to play, and he screams (diegetic sound is removed, leaving only the music in the soundtrack) in time with the vocals. It's also clear from how well-constructed the soundtrack is, especially in the first half of the film, and how reliant the picture is on sound to help form a strong and coherent mood.