电影重现奥巴马夫妇的第一次约会(1)

“Something else is pulling at me,” the gangly young man with the jug ears says. “I wonder if I can write books or hold a position of influence in civil rights,” he adds. “Politics?” the pretty young woman asks. He shrugs. “Maybe.”

“有其他东西在吸引我，”有着一对招风耳的瘦高年轻男子说道。“我想知道自己能不能写书，或者在民权方面获得有影响力的地位，”他又补充。“你是说在政治上？”漂亮的年轻女子问道。他耸了耸肩。“也许吧。”

At that point in the romantic idyll “Southside With You,” these two conversationalists are well into one of those intimate walk-and-talks future lovers sometimes share, the kind in which day turns into night and night sometimes turns into the next day (and the day after that).

在浪漫田园诗般的电影《南边有你》(Southside With You)的这个时刻，这两个健谈的人已经进入亲密的边走边谈阶段——人们在成为恋人之前往往会有那么一个阶段——他们能从白天谈到晚上，第二天接着谈（再过一天还在谈）。

As they amble through one Chicago neighborhood after another — pausing here, driving there — they also meander down their memory lanes. He’s from Hawaii and Indonesia.

他们漫步于芝加哥的一个又一个街区——在这儿逗留一会儿，开车去那儿逛一会儿——他们也沿着记忆中的小巷漫步。他来自夏威夷和印度尼西亚。

She’s from Chicago, the South Side. He’s going to Harvard Law. She’s been there, done that, and is now practicing law. You see where this is going.

她来自芝加哥南城。他将要去哈佛读法律。她已从那里毕业，正在从事法律工作。你猜得出来后续吧。

Sweet, slight and thuddingly sincere, “Southside With You” is a fictional re-creation of Barack and Michelle Obama’s first date.

甜蜜、轻松而又真诚的《南边有你》是对巴拉克和米歇尔•奥巴马(Barack and Michelle Obama)第一次约会的虚构重现。

It’s a curious conceit for a movie less because as dates go this one is pretty low key but because the writer-director Richard Tanne mistakes faithfulness for truthfulness.

对一部电影来说，它有一种奇怪的自负，不是因为约会平淡无奇，而是因为编剧兼导演理查德•坦恩(Richard Tanne)误把真诚当成真实。

He’s obviously interested in the Obamas, but he’s so cautious and worshipful that there’s nothing here to discover, only characters to admire.

他显然对奥巴马夫妇感兴趣，不过他太过谨慎，太多崇拜，所以这部影片没什么好挖掘的——除了令人倾慕的人物。

Every so often, you catch a glimpse of two people seeing each other as if for the first time; mostly, though, the movie just sets a course for the White House. “You definitely have a knack for making speeches,” Michelle says. Yes he does (can).

你经常能在片中看到两人像初次相见时那样深情对望，不过这部电影似乎主要是为他们最终走向白宫做铺垫。“你显然具有演讲才能，”米歇尔说。他的确有（是的，他能）。

The story opens with Michelle (Tika Sumpter) talking about Barack (Parker Sawyers) to her parents (“Barack o-what-a?” says dad), while he tells his grandmother about Michelle. She’s his adviser at the firm where he’s a summer associate.

故事的开头是米歇尔（蒂卡•桑普特[Tika Sumpter]饰）跟父母谈起巴拉克（帕克•索耶斯[Parker Sawyers]饰）（米歇尔的爸爸问道，“巴拉克•奥什么？”），而巴拉克跟外祖母谈起米歇尔。当时他在一家公司做暑期实习生，米歇尔是他的指导老师。

Barack digs her; Michelle thinks their dating would be inappropriate. Still, he perseveres with gentle confidence, chipping away at her defenses with searching disquisitions, a park-bench lunch and a visit to an art show,

巴拉克追求米歇尔，而米歇尔觉得他们不合适。不过，他带着温和的自信坚持不懈，通过寻找专题演讲、一次公园长凳午餐以及参观一个艺术展，一点一点打破了她的防线。在艺术展上，

where this stealth-seducer recites lines from Gwendolyn Brooks’s short poem “We Real Cool,” an ominous, disconcerting pre-mortem of some young men shooting pool that closes with the words “We die soon.”

这位秘密追求者背诵了格温德琳•布鲁克斯(Gwendolyn Brooks)的短诗《我们真的很酷》(We Real Cool)，这首令人不安的预示死亡的不祥诗歌，讲述的是几名打台球的年轻男子。诗的最后一句是：“我们很快就会死。”