消失的愛人 一次完美的改編之作

“GONE GIRL”, David Fincher's brilliantly glacial adaptation of the bestselling novel about a toxic marriage by Gillian Flynn, opens as the book did: thick with dread. The back of a woman's head and a man's voice, his tone somewhere between caring and creepy. "When I think of my wife, I picture cracking her lovely skull, unspooling her brains. Trying to get answers: What are you thinking? What are you feeling? What have we done to each other?” Then, abruptly the head moves round and the screen is filled with the chilly smile of Rosamund Pike as Amy Dunne, the 'wronged' wife, her face every bit as inscrutable as that voice. Something is off—but it's not yet clear what.

大衛·芬奇執導的新片《消失的愛人》，是對吉莉安·弗琳的同名暢銷小說的出色改編，必定經過一番深思熟慮。原著講述的是一場相互折磨的婚姻，正如小說開篇寫道：被恐懼包圍。影片中，妻子的頭背對着，丈夫在說話，關切的語調中有隱約透着不安。“每當想起我妻子時，我會想象着撬開她那真實存在的腦殼，理清她腦袋裏的思緒。努力地想要問清楚：你到底在想什麼？你到底是什麼感覺？我們到底對彼此作了什麼？”接着，影片中由羅莎曼德·派克飾演的艾米·鄧恩突然轉過頭來，熒幕中充斥着她那令人心底發寒的笑容。這個’無辜‘的妻子，臉龐上充滿着謎一般的感覺，不亞於她的話語。一定是哪裏出問題了，只是還沒弄明白罷了。

Rumours that the film adaptation of "Gone Girl" could have a new ending billowed following an interview with Ms Flynn, who wrote the screenplay herself and who claimed that the film would have “a whole new third act”. Nervous enthusiasm ensued, suggesting that much of the "pre-sold audience”—those six million readers—wanted not just to “see” the book but to re-experience the thrill of not knowing, that carefully balanced sense of unease.

通過對編劇弗琳女士的全面採訪可知，改編的影片將會有一個完全不一樣的結局。親自執筆的編劇還聲稱這部影片一定會展現一種“全新的演繹”。緊張的氛圍中滿懷期待，說明衆多“預售觀衆”，即這600萬讀者，不單單滿足於原著，更想在影片中再次體驗意想不到的驚悚，以此來小心撫平心裏的不安。

You won’t find any spoilers here. But whether or not this version has a new ending, there is no question about one thing: the book's foreboding is recaptured here in full. Everything teeters precariously on the dubiousness of different perspectives. We have two unreliable narrators: Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck), a former New York writer turned Midwest bar-owner, who moved back to his family base in Missouri a few years back with his reluctant, snooty wife, Amy. They have lost more than just their jobs in the recession; they have lost their respect for each other too. Whose fault is that? It depends on whether you’re hearing the tale from Amy or from Nick.

在這片報道里你不會遭到劇透。但是不管影片是否有一個全新的結局，可以肯定的是：原著中的不祥預兆將會再次襲來，直至影片結束。任何一點分吹草動都會讓你百般猜測。影片中的兩個主角都值得懷疑：尼克·鄧恩（本·阿弗萊克），之前是紐約作家，而後成爲中西部酒吧吧主，幾年前和傲慢固執的妻子搬回密蘇里州的家中。他們不僅在經濟蕭條期都失業了，也失去了對彼此的尊重。到底是誰的錯？這取決於你是相信艾米的自白還是尼克的講述。

On the morning of their fifth wedding anniversary Nick comes home after an elevenses bourbon at the bar he owns with his twin sister Margo (Carrie Dickens) to find Amy missing and a glass table knocked violently to the ground. He calls the police and the search begins. But Nick isn't as upset as he could be (the “killer” smile Mr Affleck produces for Nick’s first encounter with the media is a particular delight) and suddenly the public's belief in his guilt settles on him like a rash. Mr Fincher skips artfully between Nick’s story and Amy’s, using passages narrated from her diary. The two perspectives just don’t match up. Is Nick a brute? A thoughtless philanderer with violent tendencies? Or is Amy an unforgiving arch-manipulator?

結婚五週年紀念日那天早上，尼克和妹妹在自己的酒吧裏喝完午前威士忌酒，回到家中發現艾米失蹤了。玻璃質的客桌被暴力地打破，碎了一地。尼克報了警，於是搜救行動開始了。但是尼克沒有表現出一個丈夫該有的緊張（本·阿弗萊克飾演的尼克在首次媒體見面會上露出被認爲“殺手般”的笑容，公衆以此斷定他一定很高興）導致公衆突然一邊倒，輕率地相信罪魁禍首是他。大衛·芬奇藉助艾米日記裏的片段來藝術化地使尼克和艾米的故事若隱若現。從兩方出發所展現的事實並不吻合。尼克真的很殘忍嗎？他是一個沒有頭腦而又帶有暴力傾向的花花公子嗎？抑或艾米是一個心胸狹隘的幕後操控者？

What the film naturally loses in ambiguity as a result of having to show its protagonists rather than just describe them, it gains from the two remarkable central performances. Ms Pike, as the insecure Manhattan trust fund princess constantly outdone by the children’s book character—Amazing Amy—she inspired her parents to write, is a frosty, neurotic nightmare. As Nick, with his square-jawed, alpha-male insouciance, Ben Affleck is just the antithesis she’s been looking for. For both actors, a blank look that has in the past made critics question their acting ability now serves them well. We too want to see inside their pretty heads, but we can’t.

當影片有意地陷入一種模棱兩可的局面來展現故事主人公而不是簡單描述，它獲得了兩種出發點完全不同的效果。作爲曼哈頓風險信託基金會的女掌門人，派克女士一直是飾演原著角色的不二人選。驚豔的艾米，一步步誘導着父母記錄下這一場冷冽而帶有神經質的夢魘。影片中的尼克，方下巴，漫不經心地展示他的大男子主義，本·阿弗萊克絕對適合與派克飾演對手戲。兩個演員，過去因爲生硬的表情而招來種種對演技的質疑批評，而今卻令人刮目相看。我們也想搞清楚他們的心思，但是做不到。

The audience see the marital cracks before the couple do; both are trying too hard to be what they think the other wants. The flashbacks are altogether too sugar-coated, so perfect that they don’t quite seem real. “We’re so cute I want to punch us in the face,” says Amy, coolly fusing sentimentality and aggression. Viewers will too.

觀衆最先看到的是影片中夫妻破裂的婚姻關係，兩個人難以理解對方到底想幹什麼。倒敘手法一滴不漏地粉飾着故事，以致不真實。“我們可笑到想要在對方臉上打上一拳。”艾米百感交集，冷漠地控訴道。旁觀者也站在艾米的立場上。

Where many readers preferred the first half of the book to the trashier, brassier second half, the film actually improves as it goes along. It thrives on the melodrama so perfectly encapsulated by the distasteful TV shows that condemn Nick as a wife-killer before he has even been arrested. It is dark but very funny too. We laugh partly because we are complicit. The film plays up an expectation of sexism. Nick plays the humbled adulterer; Neil Patrick Harris puts in an excellent performance as a hapless stalker, eliciting both ridicule and sympathy. Tyler Perry, better known as a successful director, is a breath of fresh air as the sharkish attorney who rushes to Nick’s rescue, even though he too believes Nick to be guilty.

很多讀者對原著前半部分的冗長無趣表示抱怨，影片彌補了這個不足。這個驚悚的故事出彩在對角色有力塑造，尼克還未被定罪，但是麻煩的電視媒體卻把他當做一個殺妻兇手來譴責。影片足夠黑暗，但是也饒有趣味。我們大笑一部分是因爲我們很複雜。影片中涉及性別歧視的話題。尼克在影片中是一個懦弱的出軌丈夫。尼爾·帕特里克·哈里斯飾演的不幸的跟蹤者活靈活現，可笑又讓人同情。爲人們所熟知的知名導演，泰勒·派瑞飾演的尖牙利嘴的律師是尼克的一根救命稻草，他極力幫助尼克擺脫困境，即使他認爲尼克最有嫌疑。

Some people said that this was a film that only Mr Fincher, the director of “Seven” and “The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo”, could have done well. They were right. Mr Fincher has managed to pace this perfectly, showcasing snippets of scenes before ruthlessly cutting away and moving on to the next.

一些人認爲這部電影也只有芬奇可以使它臻於完美，他曾執導《七宗罪》和《龍紋身的女孩》。他們是正確的。在乾脆利落的剪輯面前，芬奇都會極力讓每一個場景的片段展示做到無可挑剔，最後才轉到下一幕。

“Gone Girl” isn’t Mr Fincher's best film. It suffers from too many of the same flaws as the novel: a tendency towards absurdity that undermines its granular observations about the reality of domestic life. And yet this could be Mr Fincher's most exemplary film. He is known for his cold, clever precision, and “Gone Girl” is ever so cold, ever so precise. It is drowning in muted colours and a sense of inevitability. Like Ms Flynn's novel, its cleverness lies in the fact that it is so raw and yet so empty at the same time. This may not be the perfect film—but it is a perfect adaptation.

《消失的愛人》不算是芬奇的巔峯之作。影片像小說一樣有着諸多缺陷：荒謬化的傾向削弱了影片對家庭生活真實性的細緻剖析力度。然而它卻是芬奇最具代表性的影片。芬奇以他的冷峻和深入精準的風格被人熟知，而《消失的愛人》恰恰透露着這種風格。你會被電影中呈現的壓抑色調和宿命感所吞沒。弗琳的小說也一樣，精彩在於書中陰冷而空曠的格調。小說也許不是最好的，但電影絕對稱得上是一部完美的改編之作。

"Gone Girl" is out now

《消失的愛人》現在重磅來襲