把6集迷你剧压缩成两个小时的电影,我只想说信息量真大。看完第一感觉是电影不像绝大部分人说的那样是在讨论新闻媒体的生存价值,而是一部纯粹的悬疑侦探片。我对此片的喜欢也是因为在观影过程中似乎找到了看《神探夏洛克》的快感。
开篇就展现了媒体的杀伤力,在那时博客上的网络写手可以轻易的任何一二公众人物拉下神坛,再与这种网络传播有这无限的传播速度。因此在看到议员陷入舆论挣扎的时候,我一度认为这会是像《黑镜》第一集那样来反讽现代社会新闻媒体的发达带来的灾难,可影片只是借由其背景来发展一个侦探故事。对于记者,他们只是要个头条故事而不是真相,所以我不认同其它影评认为影片是在赞扬记者追逐事实的执着或是褒扬报纸打到了政治黑幕,男主角卡尔调查此事时为了朋友,助手德拉是为了职业中对最大的头条报道,报刊室为了销量,他们的调查目的都带有私心。至少两人再发现报导已经发展成政治黑幕之前,他们的目的都未纯粹过。
回到影片本身,这种抽丝剥茧的剧情最能抓住观众的心,会无时无刻体现出故事的张力。所谓张力,就是剧情不断给观众带来紧张的刺激,不断给出新的线索来激起观众。而且影片没有滥用一般的类型片元素,什么各种飞车追逐,枪战之类的来伤害影片的节奏。即便是停车场的枪击部分,也带来很强劲的压迫感。(可参考《沉默的羔羊》和《七宗罪》,纯粹靠悬疑,不带各种什么场面元素)。罗素克劳表演有棱有角,只是本阿弗莱克依然是那个演什么都想本阿弗莱克的本阿弗莱克。两个人得对手戏出色,最后挖出事情真相后故事显然松下来了,还好靠着两人的表演没让影片完全烂尾。
It is a tightly constructed story about special reporting done by serious journalists at a fictional newspaper “Washington Globe”. In addition to the familiar elements on any major story that could break out in Washington D.C. - a rising star Congress man, a sexual scandal, multiple murders, a possible corporate conspiracy, a couple of truth-seeking reporters, some not so competent cops, many corrupted officials - the plot has enough twists and turns to keep audience interested.
I enjoyed the movie and i couldn’t say i had figured out everything before the main characters did. So that’s quite something.
What interested me even more was the ever persistent undercurrent played out through out the story: the future of traditional paper based newspaper.
When the final credit started to roll, the curious audience who stayed till the end was treated to an educational quick documentary on how a newspaper comes into being - creation of the layout, converting layout into photographic negative, etching the newspaper image from the negative onto an aluminum plate, placing the plate onto the printing press, cutting the final paper, collate the papers into one set, bundle them together, load them into trucks.
It was a bit nostalgic to watch. Even though one of the main characters, the blog writer working along side the serious real journalist, said serious story like this should be read on paper. It is obviously something the script writer wants to believe, but i hope he has enough sense to understand he is simply romanticizing a lost cause.
The Internet is fast displacing the paper based newspaper as the main information source for the readers. It is a matter of time before serious journalist acknowledge the writing on the wall. Given the technology we have today, given the ease of publishing any story on line, why should we keep serious journalist special report to an outdated 19th century technology, as beautiful as it looked on screen, it is so redundant.
It reminded me of the scene in another movie, duplicity, where Clive Own character asked Julia Roberts character running around in a vast office building looking for a compromised copier in some random employee’s office to sent a copy of a “top secret” formula. While all she really needed to do was taking a photo of it with her cellphone and sent it out as an email attachment or a MMS message.
However beautiful and incredible piece of achievement something may look, an industrial process or a dinosaur, when environment changed, then it either has to adapt to that new environment or become distinct.
Still, it was a little sad to watch the end of something so beautiful.
New York Times just ran a great article on exact this topic: Dinosaur at the Gate , By MAUREEN DOWD. Published: April 14, 2009 on-line (
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/15/opinion/15dowd.html?_r=2).
"When I ask him if human editorial judgment still matters, he tries to reassure me: 'We learned in working with newspapers that this balance between the newspaper writers and their editors is more subtle than we thought. It’s not reproducible by computers very easily.'
"I feel better for a minute, until I realize that the only reason he knew that I wasn’t so easily replaceable is that Google had been looking into how to replace me. "
上周五英国演员 David Morrissey 上 BBC Radio 5 Live 的 Simon Mayo 节目,宣传新片 Is Anybody There?。他在 BBC 连续剧 State of Play 中演 Stephen Collins。在被问道有没有看过电影版的 State of Play 时,他回答说没有,因为去看这部电影,就象是“去参加你还爱着的前妻的婚礼”(It is like going to the wedding of your ex-wife whom you are still in love with.)
如果 David Morrissey 去看了电影版的 State of Play,他会发现自己的角色份量少了许多,性格层次也少了--不过这一点我们可以怪 Ben Affleck 的木然表情。在电影版中,Russell Crowe 算有发挥空间的角色,让 Helen Mirren 来演主编,似乎是为了给电影中的这份 Washington Global 注入一点精英色彩,其实却是移植了她在 Prime Suspect 中的总警司角色。
说起 Is Anybody There? 这部电影的主角是 1980年代的英国一个养老院中的小男孩。片中的两个演员 Michael Cain 和 David Morrissey 都说演小男孩的 Bill Milner 是他们见过的最好的儿童演员。他的第一部电影是去年的 Son of Rambow。
http://taohuawu.net/2009/05/03/david-morrissey-on-state-of-play/
故事紧凑,一波三折。这里一口气涵盖了海外军事、国会风云、政商勾结、媒体运作等多方面的题材,但是显得杂而乱,而且对悬疑的铺设不够耐人寻味,主线冗长,细节处又不够明了,无法有足够的观影动力。还有,罗素克劳实在是太肥了~~7分
没有看过那个更获口碑的03年迷你剧版本,但这个电影版真的很不错,节奏流畅又迭荡起伏,演员群的表现也都很出色!
阵容挺豪华啊,克劳罗素是真不适合这个发型,剧情很抓人,但看片结束仔细想来,剧情之所以抓人,剧情只是其中一小部分原因。音乐的功劳不可抹杀。
虽然悬疑和合理性欠奉。不过拍得很发人深省啊,关于民主,关于真相,关于美国的政治,男主角演技很牛
结尾有点小失望,但片尾让我看到了印刷出版,哈哈
故事情节不是我的口味,但是总体看来却不乏味,你在这片子里能看到多少熟悉的面孔和大腕呢?BEN真的很NICE呵呵!
看个电影还碰上放错胶片,RP啊~ 演员表演中规中矩,整体风格紧凑,不过情节突转生硬了些说服力不足,音乐不错,手提摄影机风格的晃动画面看得眼晕,总体值得推荐,可惜没有特别的闪光点
结尾并没有那种令人畅快淋漓的感觉,以至于等影院里的人都散场了,我还是固执地看完了那个报纸印刷过程的片尾。
我看的出导演想拍个好故事,故事其实拎出来大体看还是过得去的,但是片中有很多没有交待清楚的地方,另外片中卡尔和柯林斯老婆的支线真的是没看出来有多大价值,导演是想让片中人物更饱满一些,可在我看了这条支线纯属充数
另类意外结局,记者视角。拉塞尔克劳形象最丑的一部
故事俗套,但是对话和对手戏都很精彩
略有俗套的剧情,对手戏精彩非凡。情节丝丝相扣,当以为真相大白尘埃落定之时,却又来一次惊天大反水,精彩!
我觉得这部电影根本不止这个分数吧。虽然有两个多小时,但是一点也不感觉拖沓,节奏把握得很好,小高潮一个接一个,结局还算是意外吧。云集众多演技派,长发的肥罗素叔也还是好有魅力啊!!
肮脏的政治造就了这部电影的成就!除了叙事稍显凌乱,情节还是很吸引人的,对于最后颠覆的惊讶只在极度重罪中有过
精彩,过瘾。这简直就应该是美国大学新闻专业学生必看影片啊,罗素克劳留着长发腆着肚子饰演不修边幅却机智老练无畏的华盛顿记者,真想不出谁还能比他更有型,悲催的小本啊,那张扑克脸,还是安心当导演吧,自导自演才是你的出路。
3星半 总体还不错... 虽然Russell Crowe的形象很符合角色 但也太让人心碎了 T Tb
大银幕久违的侦探片,很兴奋。各方面表现都良好,但是就是给人有点“为了紧张而紧张为了惊险而惊险为了悬疑而悬疑”的感觉,或许这种故事还是用电视剧能讲得更好。
电影悬念感拿捏的很好,那场车库躲避戏堪有《沉默的羔羊》结尾之韵味。不过最要命的是,三位主演左脸都有颗明显的痣。
加半颗吧,克劳好肥
从剧情上看,实在很一般,但从新闻从业者的角度来看,又觉得很振奋,这部电影唯一的成绩就是丰富了克劳那个记者角色,其他实在是很狗血。