時報影評 安妮的"紐約奇緣"

Quvenzhané Wallis is a born movie star, with charisma to burn and a rare ability to magnetize an audience’s attention. She showed as much in “Beasts of the Southern Wild,” filmed when she was just 6. In “Annie” she is older and taller, less pixieish and closer to the awkwardness of adolescence, but, if anything, her ability to charm has only increased. Unfortunately, it isn’t enough.

奎文贊妮·瓦利斯是天生的電影明星，她有着火一樣的人格魅力，以及吸引觀衆注意力的罕見才能。她在《南國野獸》(Beasts of the Southern Wild)中亮相時便顯示出這些特質，當時她可只有六歲。在《安妮：紐約奇緣》(Annie)裏，她長大了，也長高了，不再像個小精靈，開始有了青春期的笨拙，但是不管怎樣，她的魅力還是有增無減。不幸的是，一部電影僅靠她的魅力還遠遠不夠。

Ms. Wallis works hard to bring this reboot to life. So do Jamie Foxx, Rose Byrne, Bobby Cannavale and, especially, Cameron Diaz, who flings herself into the role of Miss Hannigan, Annie’s boozy, blowzy meanie of a foster mom, with almost frightening abandon. But the cast would have been better served by a middle school production overseen by a creatively frustrated, inappropriately ambitious drama teacher than by this hacky, borderline-incompetent production, which was directed by Will Gluck from a screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna.

瓦利斯努力爲這部翻拍片帶來生機。傑米·福克斯(Jamie Foxx)、羅斯·拜恩(Rose Byrne)和鮑比·坎納瓦爾(Bobby Cannavale)也是，特別是卡梅隆·迪亞茲(Cameron Diaz)，她帶着近乎駭人的自暴自棄，全心投入漢尼根小姐(Miss Hannigan)這個角色——安妮的寄養母親，一個嗜酒、邋遢的刻薄女人。但這個演員陣容真是被這樣一個水準業餘、雜亂無章的作品糟蹋了——它由威爾·古勒(Will Gluck)導演、蓮·布洛什·麥肯納(Aline Brosh McKenna)編劇——讓他們出演由一個創造力匱乏卻有着過度雄心的戲劇教師來當導演的高中校園戲，都會比現在的強。

The narrative and emotional architecture of a much loved, frequently revived, maybe-not-quite-as-great-as-you-remember-it show has been reduced to a chaotic shambles. “It’s the Hard-Knock Life” can still lodge itself in your head, and “Tomorrow” retains the power to dampen your eyes, but the way these and other numbers are arranged, choreographed and edited undermines their effectiveness. A movie musical is more than a bunch of actors lip-syncing on camera, but “Annie” is barely even that. The voices sound thin and flat. The mouths don’t move in time with the music. The dancing is a chaotic stew of flailing limbs. Numbers that are supposed to lift you out of the story into a realm of giddy wonder and pure feeling have the opposite effect. You just wish they would end.

《安妮》本是一個深受喜愛、常被翻拍，在人們記憶中顯得更加美好的故事，但在這裏，敘事和情感節奏都被拆成混亂的碎片。《這就是艱難的人生》(It’s the Hard-Knock Life)這首歌或許還回響在你的腦海，《明天》(Tomorrow)或許還能令你熱淚盈眶，但這些歌的配器、舞美和編輯方式損害了它們的魅力。一部音樂電影應該不止於幾個演員在鏡頭面前對口型演唱，但《安妮：紐約奇緣》就是這樣而已。人聲聽上去單調薄弱。有時候口型根本對不上。舞蹈簡直就是一大片手腳亂揮。那些歌曲本應該讓你脫離故事情節，進入一個充滿美妙奇蹟與純真情感的世界，但在這裏完全起到的是反效果，你巴不得它們趕緊打住。

When the singing stops, a few slightly more amusing things happen. The high point is a movie-within-the-movie, a blissfully silly sendup of the “Twilight” franchise that provides “Annie” with its only moment of genuine inspiration. Otherwise, Mr. Foxx and Ms. Wallis seem to have a nice time together, like people making the best of a long flight by playing a few hands of gin rummy.

歌聲結束後，還算有那麼一點有意思的東西。影片最精彩的是一幕戲中戲，對《暮光之城》(Twilight)系列大片沒心沒肺的嘲諷，這是《安妮》全片中唯一真正精彩的東西。此外，福克斯和瓦利斯在一起的時候看上去還挺開心，就像那些在一起打牌消磨漫長時光的人一樣。

Mr. Foxx is the Daddy Warbucks character, here renamed Will Stacks and refashioned as a cellphone billionaire halfheartedly running for mayor of New York. (The legacy of the city’s recently departed billionaire mayor, who increased incentives for local film and television production, is visible in the scenes that were shot on actual New York locations rather than somewhere in Canada.) A self-made entrepreneur, he represents both a bootstrap ethic and a fantasy of endless abundance.

福克斯飾演原版中的沃巴克老爹(Daddy Warbucks)這個角色，在影片里名爲威爾·史塔克(Will Stacks)，被重新定位成一個手機業億萬富翁，半心半意地競選紐約市長職位（這個城市新近離職的億萬富翁市長刺激着本地的電影與電視業，該片在紐約實景拍攝，而不是在加拿大什麼地方拍的，因此這位市長遺下的東西還清晰可見）。他是個白手起家的企業家，象徵着自利的道德，以及人們對極度富有的幻想。

In Harold Gray’s original “Little Orphan Annie” comic strip, Warbucks was also an avatar of anti-New Deal conservatism, his charity an alternative to the policies of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal. In the recessionary 1970s, the Broadway musical (adapted for the screen by John Huston in 1982) made room for Roosevelt and ended on a note of harmony between government and private enterprise.

在哈羅德·格雷(Harold Gray)的原版《孤女安妮》(Little Orphan Annie)漫畫中，沃巴克老爹是個反對羅斯福新政的保守主義者，他的慈善機構是富蘭克林·D·羅斯福(Franklin D. Roosevelt)的新政之外的另一個選擇。在經濟蕭條的20世紀70年代，百老匯的歌舞劇版本（該版本於1982年由約翰·赫斯頓[John Huston]搬上銀幕）爲羅斯福留出了空間，最後以政府和私人企業之間的和解跡象而告終。

This “Annie,” moving the story out of the ’30s and into a smoothed-over version of the economically anxious, politically polarized present, gives Roosevelt a brief shout-out and then flees from any implication of historical or social relevance.

這個版本的《安妮》把故事移出了20世紀30年代，完全無視當下的經濟焦慮和政治兩極分化，稍微提到了一點羅斯福，然後就完全避開了任何與歷史或社會現狀有關的內容。

I suppose a family entertainment needs to play it safe and avoid inflaming any public sensitivities. But there is a long list of movies, musical and otherwise, that are both engaging and engaged. The new “Annie” is neither. Instead of treated, we’ve been tricked.

我想一部供家庭娛樂的影片需要謹慎行事，避免觸及任何公共的敏感情緒。但有那麼多電影、音樂劇之類，都是既精彩好看又引人關注。新版《安妮》兩樣都做不到。這部片子沒什麼意思，只是讓觀衆上當了。

“Annie” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). A little naughty, a little scary.

《安妮：紐約奇緣》被標記爲PG級（建議家長指導觀看）。少量粗俗情節，少量嚇人情節。