城市岛屿

Lucky day: I picked up a movie which has been lying in my computer hard drive for almost two years—the City Island, a story which is about the key words that I came up with: lie, secret, truth and finally, relief.

Like Chinese, some words are really paradoxically synonymous with each other. Everyone would LIE to keep their SECRETS which are most often TRUTHS; when they are told, it is a big RELIEF.

Vince: a correctional officer i.e. a prison guard by our knowledge, who has most deep and personal secrets:
1. He pretended to quit smoking, already.
2. He found his out-law son (Tony) in prison and brought him home for his release.
3. His biggest secret is that he had been dreaming to be an actor so he took an acting class for a long time while had been telling lies to his wife he had been playing poker games—he thought his wife would think his secret dream is stupid, absurd…a huge shame.

Joyce: his wife. She also had secrets. She kept smoking (probably pot), too. She pretended to believe her husband had been heading for poker games while she did believe he had an affair.

Shelley: his daughter. A future college graduate in her parents’ eyes while she was a stripper to earn his tuition for next semester—she lost the scholarship because she had been caught for pot-smoking.

Tony: the unexpected result from a psyche hooker mother and young Vince, had an urge on Joyce and found Shelley was a stripper but he neither did the thing with Joyce nor got a hand on Shelley—he even tried pull Shelley out of from the strip club while she was in thin dress.

…

When all these things add up, the full picture can make up to fulfill the so-called movie category: comedy.

Yet, it is not that hilarious, actually. Real wise comes from laughter, maybe. It brings me two “in” sayings—something like that.
1.Don’t judge so quickly.
2.Not everything is as it seems. —my most remembered lines from Prison Break. While the Chinese version might be a little real hilarious: 事情不是你想的那样。

Sadly, everyone, almost, has to tell lies in real life because we all have secrets: something we have to hide, we want it to pass, we do not want to hurt someone else, we do not want to share to expose our weakness… we do not want to look like a loser. At least, I do.

However, things might be a lot easier by simply doing the simple thing: tell him/her:
I have an illegitimate son.
I still smoke.
I want to be an actor.
I dance in a strip class to make money.
…
Whether these “covert truths” are sweet or not, telling them gives you a big relief.

Don’t hide things too deep if they make our life already a mess.

City Island-2009
我要说：真的很喜欢这部“City Island”。
第一眼便认出了Alan Arkin。上世纪60年代开始，他便频繁出现在各种类型的电影中：“Wakt Until Dark-1967”里的邪恶坏蛋；“Woman Times Seven-1967”；“The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter-1968”里纯真无比的少男……一直到90年代，一直到现在，甚至还有我最爱的那部“Gattaca-1997”中的老侦探。我想从来没有一位绿叶演员像他那样，尝试过如此多不同种类的角色：好人坏人，偷情者殉情者，从年少到年老，想想都值得激动和敬佩，不是吗。
因为我也上过戏剧表演课，也曾跟一个陌生人分享自己内心的秘密，所以我很明白那种感觉。一个陌生人站在你身边，只是因为一同上表演课，便莫名其妙地把自己的最心底的秘密交付了这个陌生人。那些没有勇气说出来的秘密，竟然如此毫不保留。——而最后，那个陌生人，依然是陌生人。难道不感动吗。

Andy Garcia有一个秘密，当然他有一个秘密——每个人都有秘密。
西方小说传统中的“秘密”，“The Reader”中Hannah苦苦守住的秘密Michael在多年后终于释然。
不单Andy Garcia有个秘密，他们家每个人都有一个秘密。——除了Andy的私生子Tony——Tony不认识Andy，但Andy却是一眼认出了Tony。
不知为什么，Tony就像“家有喜事”系列里的张国荣，他一个人，洞察了这个家里所有人的秘密。

Andy Garcia和Emily Mortimer分享自己的秘密。Emily Mortimer鼓励他逐步向家庭坦白自己的秘密。
Andy住的地方叫city island，在繁华都市隔壁的一个小岛。
Emily Mortimer第一次听说这个地方，便说：Every busy city needs an island of peace, just like every busy soul needs a place to propose.
她的秘密比Andy的深许多，她无法说出自己的秘密，她只是把秘密放在信封内，让Andy在适当的时候打开信封。终于，当他们一起踏足小岛，她让Andy打开了信封。信封内是一张照片，是她的丈夫和儿女——五个月前，她离开了他们，为了来城市上表演课。

心内藏着一个秘密，一点也不轻松。
最戏剧化的一场戏，是Andy第一次去试镜，长长的队伍中，竟然还有表演课老师Alan Arkin，而最终竟是自己入围。看着老师转身离去，何尝不是突然明白了老师的秘密？

我想这个故事最有趣的一个地方，是让我们去思考梦想和秘密之间的关系。
秘密，或许是一个梦想；或许是一个亏欠；我们觉得自己是为了梦想而付出一个亏欠；而当Emily看着Andy一家人终于坦白自己的秘密，她默默走了。迎着朝阳，坐上大巴。
Emily本来认为自己是为了内心的梦想而离家出走的；然而，这秘密的梦想难道真的秘密到不能跟家人分享吗？我们为什么羞于向别人坦诚自己的梦想？为了这份羞愧，我们付出一份亏欠；为了所谓的梦想我们努力，然而不见得所有人都可以像Andy一样幸运；到头来，我们亏欠了自己的家庭，甚至还亏欠了自己的梦想。

城市，短暂，唐突而明确。
岛屿，微小，未知。
每一座繁忙的城市都需要一个安静和平的岛屿。
每一个繁忙的灵魂都需要一个刻意轻松的地方。
城市，岛屿，其实与梦想无关，与秘密有关，与生活有关。

末了，真的推介大家都去上上表演课，放松自己，甚至可以找到自己的灵魂。

近期看的还不错的。我把他和《充气娃娃之恋》归类为一类。虽然故事差距很大，但一样的讲的勇敢地生活，真诚的对待自己的内心。

纽约附近城岛的监狱看守文斯（安迪·加西亚 Andy Garcia 饰）瞒着老婆乔伊斯（朱丽安娜· 玛格丽丝 Julianna Margulies 饰）到城里上表演课，梦想成为一名演员。乔伊斯瞒着文斯抽烟，女儿和儿子也都有自己的大小秘密，一家人各自为政。有一天文斯发现新转来的犯人汤尼（史蒂文·斯崔特 Steven Strait 饰）竟是自己遗弃二十多年的儿子。文斯把汤尼带回了家，向所有人隐瞒了事实，希望能利用假释好好照顾这个儿子，让他重返正途。与此同时，在表演课同学莫莉（艾米莉·莫迪默 Emily Mortimer 饰）的鼓励下，文斯参加了一次重要的电影角色面试，没想到这却引起了乔伊斯的误会，造成了家庭危机大爆发……

这个故事告诉我们婚外情的一个严重后果是不知什么时候私生子会和自己的老婆和女儿搞在一起。电影里的狱警算是幸运了，私生子托尼在最后关头保存了正人君子风度，没搞上他老婆。经过误会家庭多年的矛盾得到化解，自己也如愿当上演员，家庭变得和睦欢乐起来

这类电影是我的最爱，类似的有阳光小美女、美国丽人、孩子们都还好等等，文斯的挠脸的动作以及长相颇似德尼罗呢。
一般美国城市普通家庭的矛盾冲突，最终启发影片中人物和看电影的观众，圆满结束，观者心情愉悦。把哪怕最糟糕的实情说出来才是影片鼓励的行为，人们总是自以为聪明，不愿意把自认为糟糕的事情与家人分享，害怕伤害他们，无论你看多少类似的电影或者都明白这类道理，但轮到自己的时候还是忍不住说谎，不信你想想是不是这样的？