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.
奎文赞妮·瓦利斯是天生的电影明星,她有着火一样的人格魅力,以及吸引观众注意力的罕见才能。她在《南国野兽》(Beasts of the Southern Wild)中亮相时便显示出这些特质,当时她可只有六岁。在《安妮:纽约奇缘》(Annie)里,她长大了,也长高了,不再像个小精灵,开始有了青春期的笨拙,但是不管怎样,她的魅力还是有增无减。不幸的是,一部电影仅靠她的魅力还远远不够。
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.
瓦利斯努力为这部翻拍片带来生机。杰米·福克斯(Jamie Foxx)、罗斯·拜恩(Rose Byrne)和鲍比·坎纳瓦尔(Bobby Cannavale)也是,特别是卡梅隆·迪亚兹(Cameron Diaz),她带着近乎骇人的自暴自弃,全心投入汉尼根小姐(Miss Hannigan)这个角色——安妮的寄养母亲,一个嗜酒、邋遢的刻薄女人。但这个演员阵容真是被这样一个水准业余、杂乱无章的作品糟蹋了——它由威尔·古勒(Will Gluck)导演、莲·布洛什·麦肯纳(Aline Brosh McKenna)编剧——让他们出演由一个创造力匮乏却有着过度雄心的戏剧教师来当导演的高中校园戏,都会比现在的强。
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》本是一个深受喜爱、常被翻拍,在人们记忆中显得更加美好的故事,但在这里,叙事和情感节奏都被拆成混乱的碎片。《这就是艰难的人生》(It’s the Hard-Knock Life)这首歌或许还回响在你的脑海,《明天》(Tomorrow)或许还能令你热泪盈眶,但这些歌的配器、舞美和编辑方式损害了它们的魅力。一部音乐电影应该不止于几个演员在镜头面前对口型演唱,但《安妮:纽约奇缘》就是这样而已。人声听上去单调薄弱。有时候口型根本对不上。舞蹈简直就是一大片手脚乱挥。那些歌曲本应该让你脱离故事情节,进入一个充满美妙奇迹与纯真情感的世界,但在这里完全起到的是反效果,你巴不得它们赶紧打住。
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.
歌声结束后,还算有那么一点有意思的东西。影片最精彩的是一幕戏中戏,对《暮光之城》(Twilight)系列大片没心没肺的嘲讽,这是《安妮》全片中唯一真正精彩的东西。此外,福克斯和瓦利斯在一起的时候看上去还挺开心,就像那些在一起打牌消磨漫长时光的人一样。
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.
福克斯饰演原版中的沃巴克老爹(Daddy Warbucks)这个角色,在影片里名为威尔·史塔克(Will Stacks),被重新定位成一个手机业亿万富翁,半心半意地竞选纽约市长职位(这个城市新近离职的亿万富翁市长刺激着本地的电影与电视业,该片在纽约实景拍摄,而不是在加拿大什么地方拍的,因此这位市长遗下的东西还清晰可见)。他是个白手起家的企业家,象征着自利的道德,以及人们对极度富有的幻想。
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.
在哈罗德·格雷(Harold Gray)的原版《孤女安妮》(Little Orphan Annie)漫画中,沃巴克老爹是个反对罗斯福新政的保守主义者,他的慈善机构是富兰克林·D·罗斯福(Franklin D. Roosevelt)的新政之外的另一个选择。在经济萧条的20世纪70年代,百老汇的歌舞剧版本(该版本于1982年由约翰·赫斯顿[John Huston]搬上银幕)为罗斯福留出了空间,最后以政府和私人企业之间的和解迹象而告终。
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.
这个版本的《安妮》把故事移出了20世纪30年代,完全无视当下的经济焦虑和政治两极分化,稍微提到了一点罗斯福,然后就完全避开了任何与历史或社会现状有关的内容。
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.
我想一部供家庭娱乐的影片需要谨慎行事,避免触及任何公共的敏感情绪。但有那么多电影、音乐剧之类,都是既精彩好看又引人关注。新版《安妮》两样都做不到。这部片子没什么意思,只是让观众上当了。
“Annie” is rated PG (Parental guidance suggested). A little naughty, a little scary.
《安妮:纽约奇缘》被标记为PG级(建议家长指导观看)。少量粗俗情节,少量吓人情节。