評論
打印
Books and Arts;New cinema; The cradle will rock;
還有什么能比一個被自己親生孩子憎惡的母親更令人忌諱的呢？這就是《凱文怎么了》一書的精髓。它是萊昂內爾·施賴弗（本報的前任文學評論家）的一部杰出小說，講述了一位母親在自己十幾歲的孩子犯下屠殺大罪后勉強度日的生活。故事隨著伊娃·卡查度瑞安寫給丈夫的一連串信件展開，她追溯了他們共同生活的那些階段——從一段美好婚姻走向了一個毒性家庭，還有那個讓一切都變得灰暗的縈繞于心的事件。然而即使伊娃重新搜集了她兒子幼年時狠毒本性的證據，讀者仍然會被一個惱人的問題所困擾：如果他的母親曾多愛他一些的話，凱文會不會好很多？
It takes courage to adapt an epistolary novel for the screen, particularly one as psychologically complex as this one. Yet Lynne Ramsay's film of the same name, starring Tilda Swinton as Eva, is excellent. The gift of this version is its visual rendering of Eva's claustrophobic thoughts. With a minimalist screenplay written with Rory Kinnear, Ms Ramsay translates Eva's clot of dark and messy words into a collage of evocative and mostly wordless scenes. These vignettes shift from the present—Eva living as a social pariah, a husk of her former self—to the past, and are jumbled with the non-chronology of memory. As in the book, Kevin's big, violent moment is left until the end, but the bloody fact of it infects everything that comes before.
將一部書信體小說搬上銀幕需要很大的勇氣，尤其當涉及復雜的心理學，例如本片。然而琳恩·拉姆塞的這部同名電影卻很優秀。蒂爾達·斯文頓在片中飾演伊娃。該片的精髓表現在對伊娃的幽閉恐懼癥想法那栩栩如生的描繪上。劇本由羅里·金奈爾創作，風格極簡。拉姆塞將伊娃那一團團模糊凌亂的文字轉化成了一系列場景的拼貼，這些大都無言的場景能夠喚起人們的回憶。如今的伊娃生活在社會底層，只剩下一副當初的自己的軀殼。這些小片段從當前切換到曾經，不同年月的記憶互相交織，錯綜復雜。同書里一樣，凱文重要的施暴時刻被留在了末尾，但它那血腥的事實感染了之前的一切。
Still, something is lost in witnessing Kevin in the flesh instead of through Eva's unreliable recollections. In the novel, Eva perceives her son's cruelty from the start, though it goes unseen by his doting father Franklin (played here by John C. Reilly, everyone's favourite pushover). On-screen, Kevin is quite obviously malicious, first as a nasty little boy and then as a spiteful, ink-eyed teenager. As the latter Kevin, Ezra Miller seethes with ruthlessness, his face impenetrable. Yet he is also distractingly attractive, with cheekbones any starlet would covet, making him an awkward choice for such an enigmatic role.
盡管如此，在經由伊娃那不可靠的回憶而非親自目擊凱文的過程中，某些東西還是不見了。在小說中，伊娃從一開始就感覺到了兒子的殘忍，但它隨著寵溺凱文的父親（由人人都愛的弱敵約翰·C·賴利飾演）而被漠視。在影片中，凱文的惡毒頗為明顯，起初是一個險惡的小男孩，然后變成一個目光陰沉的刻毒少年。飾演后者的埃茲拉·米勒爆發出了殘忍，他的面部表情不可測知。而米勒同時也令人走神地引力十足。他有著任何小明星都覬覦的顴骨，因此由他來扮演這樣一個謎一般的角色顯得不尷不尬。
This is not a problem that affects Ms Swinton, who carries this film. Not unlike a praying mantis, her odd and otherworldly beauty takes time to notice. Her face, powerful in its spareness, registers emotion with subtle ticks and readjustments. As Eva, she conveys the desolation of a life made meaningless, first by the lonely challenges of motherhood, then by tragedy. Driving in her car to the chirpy strains of Buddy Holly's “Every day seems a little longer”, her ghost-eyed stare keeps us locked in her nightmare.
但這不會對攜領全片的斯文頓產生任何影響。她就像一只螳螂，需要時間才能體會出她那奇特脫俗的美。她的臉，瘦弱之中充滿力量，將情感投注在微妙的運轉與調整之中。她飾演的伊娃傳達了生活在喪失其意義之后的荒蕪，先是由于身為人母的孤獨挑戰，接著是因為這出悲劇。她驅車進入了不斷叫囂著巴迪·霍利筆下“每一天都變得更加漫長”的語境之中。她那幽靈般雙目的凝視也將我們深鎖在她的噩夢之中。
