爱丽丝的失踪

两百万 　　 100分钟 　　 三个演员 　　 两个场景 　　 一部电影 爱情值多少钱？爱情换来的200万到底属于谁=紧张激烈跌宕起伏猜得着开头猜不到结局猜得到结局猜不到过程的100分钟=一共才三位演员而且大多数场景是两个人对手飙戏=一间密室一见空置的仓库完成了所有的情节的需要=一部情节紧凑张弛有力导演牵着观众鼻子走的新锐电影。 　　 爱丽丝的失踪 　　 演员太少了，使得三个人个个出彩，但是比较于爱丽丝的惊恐绝望大叫，小V的深藏不露凶残蛮横，丹尼才是整个电影里最为纠结最为出戏的那个角色。男猪柔弱忧郁的眼神让老段想起了一级恐惧里的诺顿，碰巧长相上也酷似后来大红大紫的诺帅哥，但是比起诺顿的处女作里面略带本色的演出，这部小电影里男猪承担了更多的责任，他是这出戏的始作俑者，将对立的绑架者和被绑架者之间有机的联系起来，说通俗一点就是是脚踏两只船，而他自己感觉还在岸上。 　　 这部电影对于情节的推敲已经到了令人发指的地步，由于它简单的布景和一条线的故事，导演组势必在细节的处理上给足了力。就像一张白纸上下围棋，一黑一白貌似一览无余，然而却毫无规律可言。而影片最大的优势就是因为其对剧情的一再推敲，使得剧情的发展根本不具有可预见性，从而将可观赏性推到了极致。当电影开始，观众已经上了导演的过山车，没有时间和精力去恐惧和害怕，剩下的只是对这种快感的沉迷不能自拔。 　　 片中涉及了两种爱情，同性也好异性也好，都不是显得那么纯洁和无私，200万就可以将什么信任爱情践踏的一无是处，剩下的只是相互利用，相互欺骗，相互伤害。丹尼无辜的眼神温存的话语，让你在他的世界里犹豫不决，恐怕连他自己也没有准备好 当事情朝着好多方向去的时候，你会发现压根就没有方向。 　　 影片最后响起了优雅的音乐，天空依然蔚蓝，一切仍未改变。

The first and third features from English filmmaker J Blakeson, who most certainly has a partiality for dark and queer characters. TDoAC is a three-person hostage thriller shot on a shoestring, in the mode of William Wyler’s THE COLLECTOR (1965), only more ascetic and messier.

The titular Alice Creed (Arterton) is a rich daddy’s girl, who is kidnapped by two ex-convicts Danny (Compston) and Vic (Marsan), things would go peachy for everyone had it not been the fact that Danny is Alice’s ex-boyfriend, and once this cardinal information is divulged, the whole shebang veers to murkier waters as viewers cannot ascertain who among the three would be the victor, each one seems to an unknown quantity.

The craft on show is adroit, the opening wordless sequences are neat and bracing shot and edited, they smooth the way for audience to gear up for what it is coming - a typical hostage situation set in a single, drab location, where a voluptuous Arterton has to undergo some roughhousing, being gagged, tied, undressed (the usual suspects of S&M fantasy), redressed, and later choked and slapped, but most humiliating of it all, urinating to a bedpan in front of two masked kidnappers.

Well, Blakeson does not actually go to extremes on the path to a torture porn, instead he manipulates various plot twists in a canny way that each time, when a character achieves some sort leverage, the table will be turned in a trice. Also, the fluidity of sexuality plays a major part in the double-cross/counter-double-cross gamesmanship, can sweet nothings soften the gun barrel pointing at your face? Twice out of three you might not luck out.

The long and short of it, TDoAC is an absorbing debut feature mines brilliantly into its meager resource and the outstanding performances from its three players. Can a cowing Eddie Marsan transform himself into a meek lover? You must see for yourself; whereas Martin Compston portrays Danny’s bisexual oscillation with adequacy and Arterton goes for broke in her birthday suit, when all is said and done, countering to what its title alludes to, “disappearance” could be a blessing in disguise.

However, in I CARE A LOT, a Rosamund Pike’s feminist vehicle, Blakeson’s irony and sarcasm goes pitch black. Pike plays a ruthless con woman Marla Grayson, who operates a company legally acquiring the guardianship of elderly people through a duplicitous scheme (often assisted by unscrupulous doctors and inane judges), so their assets are completely at her disposal (though on the face of it, the juridical procedures feel rather facile).

Her gravy train hits a snag when she milks a wrong cow, Jennifer Peterson (a nonplussed then fuming Wiest is always a corker), the apparently perfect candidate, affluent, childless, all alone in the world, actually has a formable friend at court, the Russian mafia boss Roman Lunyov (Dinklage). So when the gloves are off, it is Marla and her girlfriend Fran (González) versus the murderous gangsters, do they have a chance? Or, shall we care?

The answer is yes and no, the ineptitude of Roman’s riffraff is astonishingly shocking (what can you say? they botch not one but two cases of snuffing a defenseless, unconscious woman!), and Marla is depicted as an amoral overachiever, a stony-faced ballbuster, a totally unregenerate bitch (not a scintilla of remorse can be traced on her face), ergo, that really puts audience off from empathizing with her, save for the pungent disgust towards the American Dream she is spoiling for.

If its paint-by-number predator/prey dichotomy sounds trite, its David and Goliath tale seems incredulous and oversimplified, what saves I CARE A LOT from heading to the abyss is Pike. Tricked out in fetching attire and unflappable towards any threats shot at her from the other sex, her Marla is “Amazing Amy” with a vengeance and irrefragably batting for the other team (her affection for Fran is genuine, a viewer might second-guess Marla’s unspecified backstory, how her reprehensible carapace could be the outgrowth of the malefic influence inflicted by the world at large, and Fran’s female warmth becomes her only safe haven). Even in the absence of cordial redeeming feats, it is still riveting to watch Pike’s Marla in action, her fearlessness is both scary and inspiring, you hate her guts but also crave for her guts (or maybe just a part of) ambivalence is here to stay.

At last, Blakeson plumps for poetic justice to put paid to Marla’s unstoppable ascension (can it be construed as a veiled pro-gun testimony? In the United States, the only way for a poor, miserable guy to seek justice from a powerful woman is to use anti-personnel weaponry, how reassuring!), but it feels bathetic, unlike Martin Scorsese’s THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013), Blakeson doesn’t know how to dream up a proper coda for a repulsive character, he settles for the safest exit strategy, since everything in I CARE A LOT is Manichaean.

Elsewhere, a debonair Messina lights up the screen as an unethical, soigné lawyer who tries and fails to railroad Marla into dancing to his tunes; Dinklage is always an atypical screen magnet, here his surly temperament is a good match with Pike’s posh sharpness. From TDoAC to I CARE A LOT, the production design goes from drab to hip, Marc Canham’s hypnotic electronic buzz swells and intensifies, but Blakeson’s script and imagination seems to be impeded by a bigger scale and more handsome budget, is it the downside of the money monster?

referential entries: William Wyler’s THE COLLECTOR (1965, 8.0/10); Martin Scorsese’s THE WOLF OF WALL STREET (2013, 8.0/10).

Title: The Disappearance of Alice Creed

Year: 2009

Country: UK

Language: English

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Director/Screenwriter: J Blakeson

Music: Marc Canham

Cinematography: Philipp Blaubach

Editing: Mark Eckersley

Cast:

Gemma Arterton

Martin Compston

Eddie Marsan

Rating: 6.9/10

Title: I Care a Lot

Year: 2020

Country: USA, UK

Language: English

Genre: Comedy, Crime, Thriller

Director/Screenwriter: J Blakeson

Music: Marc Canham

Cinematography: Doug Emmett

Editing: Mark Eckersley

Cast:

Rosamund Pike

Peter Dinklage

Eiza González

Dianne Wiest

Chris Messina

Isiah Whitlock Jr.

Damian Young

Nicholas Logan

Alicia Witt

Macon Blair

Celeste Oliva

Rating: 6.4/10