電影《鋒迴路轉》影評：鋒迴路轉影評 –一部妙趣恆生的偵探小說
鋒迴路轉影評
Knives Out review – a deliciously entertaining whodunnit
鋒迴路轉影評 –一部妙趣恆生的偵探小說
Rian Johnson’s homage to Agatha Christie delivers laughs, twists and thrills with aplomb
萊恩·約翰遜像阿加莎克里斯蒂的致敬之作，以冷靜的態度獻上歡笑、反轉和緊張。
作者：Mark Kermode電影觀察批評家
譯者：不恃
評分：4星/5星滿分
Describing his thrillingly playful attitude toward genre cinema, writer/director Rian Johnson once told me that he loved the 「slightly meta conversation it opens between you and the viewer」 – the way that a shared set of ground rules can be assumed and then subverted. That’s been a feature of Johnson’s career since his low-budget debut feature, Brick (2005), transposed a dark, 1940s noir narrative to the sunny environs of a modern California high school, with attention-grabbing results. In 2012’s Looper, he turned a time-travel adventure into a bleak meditation upon the consequences of solving problems through violence. More recently, his 2017 Star Wars movie, The Last Jedi, outraged some hardcore fans who didn’t think the series’ ever-evolving mythology should be up for discussion.
編劇兼導演的萊恩·約翰遜在形容他對電影類型的戲謔態度時曾告訴我，他特別愛那種「你和觀眾之間那一點微妙的特定對話」- 那種相信彼此共享一套基本原則，然後又把它們顛覆的過程。那是約翰遜導演生涯的一個特點，他的首部低預算劇情片《追兇》（2005）把1940年代的黑暗敘事轉向了現代加利福尼亞灑滿陽光的高中校園，這取得了引人注目的成就。在2012年的《環形使者》中，他把時空旅行轉變成了一種對通過暴力解決問題的現象的冷靜思考。更近一段時間，2017年的星球大戰系列電影《最後的絕地武士》激怒了一些鐵桿影迷，他們認為該系列循環式的神話不應該被拿出來討論。
In the deliciously entertaining Knives Out, Johnson goes back to his roots with an updated homage to the Agatha Christie whodunnits he loved as a child, and to those 「cheekily self-aware」 screen adaptations in which Peter Ustinov would lead an all-star cast through a labyrinthine murder mystery.
在妙趣橫生的《鋒迴路轉》中，約翰遜以向他小時候喜歡的阿加莎克里斯蒂式的推理小說致敬的方式回歸初心。並且也向那些彼得·烏斯蒂諾夫的有著強烈自我意識的全明星複雜翻拍電影表達敬意。
The setting is a gothic pile in modern-day New England where crime-writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer) has recently capped his 85th birthday celebrations by dying dramatically in his attic study. It looks like an open-and-shut suicide, but could one of Harlan’s variously leechy family members (witheringly described as a bunch of 「self-made over-achievers」) have slit his throat? After all, the old man spent the evening settling old scores and 「cleaning house」…
電影的背景是新英格蘭一個現代的哥特式大宅，犯罪小說作者哈蘭·斯倫比（克里斯托弗·普盧默飾）在他85歲生日宴會當天於其書房中以戲劇性地方式去世。這看起來明顯是場自殺，但在哈蘭如社會蛀蟲般的家人中（他們很諷刺地被形容為一群「白手起家的成功者」）是否有某個人可能是割開他喉嚨的兇手呢？畢竟，這位老人花了一整晚整理舊賬和「清掃門戶」……
Perhaps black-sheep Ransom (Chris Evans, oozing privilege) did it – he was heard arguing with his grandfather that night. Or what about the ever-so-slightly snivelling Walt (Michael Shannon, playing against type), whose publishing fortune depended on his father’s faltering favour? Then there’s son-in-law Richard (Don Johnson), a Trumpy horror with a wandering eye; and widowed lifestyle guru Joni (Toni Collette, channelling goopy Gwyneth Paltrow), both of whom had axes to grind.
也許是害群之馬蘭森（克里斯·埃文斯飾）乾的 – 有人聽見他那晚和他的爺爺爭執過。又或者，是那個稍微有點哭哭啼啼的沃爾特（邁克爾·珊農飾，角色大轉型），他的出版社資產完全仰仗他父親對他所剩無幾的憐愛。然後還有他的女婿理查德（唐·約翰遜飾），一個特朗普式的有著游移眼神的討厭鬼；還有寡居的養生大師喬妮（托妮·科萊特飾），雙方似乎都蠢蠢欲動。
Only Harlan’s nurse and carer Marta (Ana de Armas) appears above suspicion, blessed with a 「regurgitative reaction to mistruths」 that makes her vomit when lying. As for eldest daughter Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis in career-best form), she can’t help 「thinking about Dad’s games」 and 「waiting for the big reveal…」
只有哈蘭的護士兼護理員瑪爾塔（安娜·德·阿瑪斯飾）看起來毫無嫌疑，她有著「對謊言的反胃反應」，每當她撒謊，她就會嘔吐。至於大女兒琳達（傑米·李·柯蒂斯職業生涯中的最佳表現），她無法控制地「想到父親愛玩的遊戲」並「等待著大揭祕的來臨……」
Helping to divine the nature of Harlan’s 「manner of death」 is gentleman sleuth Benoit Blanc, a cigar-smoking, coin-flipping interloper played with an outrageous southern US accent (Ransom calls him the 「CSI-KFC」) by Daniel Craig. Blanc describes himself as a 「passive observer of the truth」, but a web of intrigue surrounds his own presence at this party. Who hired him? And what for?
為了幫助查清楚哈蘭之死的真相，丹尼爾·克雷格飾演的貝努瓦·布蘭克偵探出現了，他是個抽著雪茄，愛擲硬幣的闖入者，還操著濃重的美國南部口音（蘭森叫他CSI的肯德基老爺爺）。布蘭克把他自己描述為一個「真相的被動觀察者」。但他自己在這一事件中的出現本身就被籠罩在一個複雜的陰謀之中。誰雇來了他？又為什麼要請他來？
As with the very best whodunnits, everything is set up and sneakily signalled in the opening moments of the drama, but it’s only on second viewing that those early clues become evident. There’s real pleasure to be had watching Johnson wind the coiled springs of his steel-trap plot, yet none of it would bite if we didn’t care about the characters, who remain just on the right side of caricature. Built upon a wittily verbose script that delivers more laugh-out-loud lines than most of the year’s alleged comedies, Knives Out retains a beating human heart into which daggers are regularly plunged. Witness Linda delivering a stinging reminder that all this entertaining mystery is playing out in the wake of a family tragedy, with Curtis’s imperious performance capturing that balance between the arch and the empathetic that is the film’s signature.
就像所有的推理小說一樣，一切在開場時就已經被設計好了。但只有在看第二遍的時候，那些隱藏在早期的線索才會變得顯眼。看著約翰遜在他的捕獸器上一圈又一圈地繞著彈簧，真的是件很享受的事。但如果我們沒有關注那些角色，他們看起來就完全無害，都依然在這個荒誕故事裡佔據著道德高地。基於一個詼諧又稍顯冗長的劇本，這部電影比今年很多其他的所謂的喜劇拋出了更多令人發笑的台詞，「鋒迴路轉」在匕首通常會直接刺入的地方，保留了一顆跳動的心臟。見證者Linda給出了令人心痛的提醒，這是一齣家庭悲劇。這部電影的顯著特點是柯蒂斯強勢的表演風格，及其營造的劇情和引發共鳴之間的平衡。
As with Christie’s novels, there’s a strong element of social satire too. Although Marta is repeatedly told that she’s 「part of the family」, she wasn’t invited to Harlan’s funeral, prompting more than one wealthy suspect to insist confidentially: 「I thought you should have been there, but I was overruled.」 Significant, too, that the oft-mocked Blanc remains a fish out of water in this cloistered environment, presenting a clownish facade that distracts the unsuspecting from his more serious purpose.
就像克里斯蒂的小說一樣，這部電影包含著強烈的社會諷刺成分。雖然瑪爾塔總是被稱為是「這個家庭的一員」，她卻沒被邀請參加哈蘭的葬禮。這讓不止一個富有的嫌疑人表示「我認為你應該出席，可是我的提議被其他人否決了」。同樣很明顯的是，在這個如同修道院般的環境中，經常被嘲諷的布朗克總感覺渾身不自在，表現出一副小丑般的嘴臉來擾亂別人對他的更重要的目的的懷疑。
All this plays out in a house that is rightly likened to a giant Cluedo board (plaudits to production designer David Crank), replete with trick windows and creaky stairs, handily overheard by clock-watching light sleepers. Steve Yedlin’s cameras prowl through its rooms with stealthy zest, slithering around characters, pushing in on their faces – eyeing them with close-up suspicion from below or maintaining a facade of objective distance from above. Editor Bob Ducsay intercuts between past and present as voiceovers establish a dynamic dialogue between disparate time periods.
這一切都發生在一個可以被比作妙探尋兇董事會的房間裡（在此為製作設計師大衛·格蘭克鼓掌），那裡滿是花案繁複的窗戶和嘎吱作響的樓梯，很容易被睡得很淺的人聽到。史蒂夫·葉德林的攝像機帶著隱秘的熱情在房間裡徘徊，在角色周邊滑動，靠近他們的臉部 – 以從下往上的角度帶著懷疑凝視他們，或從上方拍攝，保持一個比較客觀的角度。編輯鮑勃·杜賽在過去和現在之間切換著鏡頭，同時旁白也在完全不同的時間段之間營造了一種動態的對話。
The cherry on the cake is Nathan Johnson’s terrifically ripe score, as sharp and spiralling as the theatrical crown of knives that hangs behind key interrogation scenes, pointing and prodding accusingly as we wait for the sword of Damocles to drop.
最精彩的部分是內森·約翰遜極其成熟的配樂，它就像那場關鍵審訊時懸掛在後方的戲劇化的利刃王座一樣鋒利，並且不斷地盤旋逼近，在我們等待達摩克利斯之劍落下的時刻展現著它的鋒利和咄咄逼人的控訴。
——不恃讀影評，如有紕漏，歡迎指正。