伍迪・艾伦新片《魔力月光》的诱人魔力

Woody Allen's 'Magic in the Moonlight' stars Emma Stone as a psychic medium, Sophie Baker, and Colin Firth as a master magician who sets out to debunk her. Ms. Stone is entrancing, whether Sophie is in or out of her trance state, and so is the movie as a whole.

在伍迪・艾伦(Woody Allen)执导的影片《魔力月光》(Magic in the Moonlight)中，艾玛・斯通(Emma Stone)饰演灵媒师索菲・贝克(Sophie Baker)，科林・弗思(Colin Firth)饰演一位试图揭穿索菲・贝克真面目的魔术大师。无论索菲意识清醒的时候还是神叨叨的时候，斯通的表演都令人着迷，而整部影片看起来也是如此。

The time is the 1920s and the setting is the Côte d'Azur, basking in the gauzy warmth of Darius Khondji's cinematography. Mr. Firth's conjuror, a haughty Englishman named Stanley Crawford, has come to the south of France at the request of an old friend and fellow magician, Howard Burkan (Simon McBurney). Howard worries that a rich American family is being fleeced by the alluring Sophie, and Stanley, who performs under the stage name of Wei Ling Soo, makes a specialty of unmasking fake psychics. (Wei Ling Soo is a riff on Chung Ling Soo, the stage name of an American, William Ellsworth Robinson, who also exposed fake psychics, and who died on stage from a bullet wound when a trick went disastrously wrong.)

影片的背景设定在上世纪20年代的法国蔚蓝海岸，整部影片浸淫在达赖厄斯・甘地(Darius Khondji)拍摄技术所营造的煦暖之中。弗思饰演一个名叫斯坦利・克劳福德(Stanley Crawford)的傲慢自大的英国魔术师，他应一位魔术师老友霍华德・布尔坎(Howard Burkan)之邀来到法国南部。霍华德由西蒙・麦克伯尼(Simon McBurney)饰演。霍华德担心一个富有的美国家庭被诱人的索菲欺骗了，而斯坦利擅长揭穿假灵媒术。斯坦利的艺名叫魏连苏(Wei Ling Soo)。魏连苏这个名字借用了一位揭穿假灵媒术的美国人威廉・埃尔斯沃思・鲁宾逊(William Ellsworth Robinson)的艺名程连苏(Chung Ling Soo)。这位美国人在表演过程中魔术出现灾难性的失误，他被枪击中而死在了舞台上。

The conjuror behind the camera has often used magic and magicians in his movies, most recently a fortune teller in 'You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger.' He keeps us waiting before he brings Sophie on-to heighten suspense about whether she could be the real thing, and to establish scowling, snarling Stanley as her adversary. 'You're a genius with all the charm of a typhus epidemic,' Howard says with wry fondness, but that barely begins to describe him, or to hint at the pleasures of Mr. Firth's performance.

伍迪・艾伦常常在自己执导的影片中使用魔术和魔术师，最近一次是在一部名为《遭遇陌生人》(You Will Meet a Tall Dark Stranger)的影片中塑造了一个算命师。他令观众等待很久才让索菲亮相，目的是为索菲是否为货真价实的灵媒师增加悬念，同时把愁眉苦脸、动辄大吼的斯坦利设定为她的对手。霍华德怀着扭曲的好感说：“你是一个天才，像伤寒一样令人无法抗拒”。但这丝毫无法概括他的全部，也无法显示出弗思的表演给人带来的愉悦。

Stanley is full of himself to the bursting point, and a superb comic character-a pessimist searching furtively for hope; a steely rationalist and male chauvinist riding for a romantic fall. If there's a sense that we've encountered him before, it's not accidental. He's Henry Higgins redux, with speech patterns that sometimes echo Rex Harrison's; at any moment he could break into 'I've Grown Accustomed to Her Face.' (Mr. Firth pulls off a trick of his own by appearing young enough to make us overlook-if we're inclined to do so-the 28-year age difference between him and Ms. Stone.)

斯坦利是一个自负到爆的家伙，一个超级搞笑的角色，同时也是一个悄悄寻找希望的悲观主义者；斯坦利还是一个坚定的理性主义者，同时兼具浪漫情怀的大男子主义者。如果你觉得斯坦利似曾相识也并不奇怪。弗思曾饰演过希金斯(Henry Higgins)一角，其说话的方式有时候和雷克斯•哈里森(Rex Harrison)有相似之处；他随时都可能来插上一句“我已经适应了她的脸”。（弗思在自己的脸上施了魔法，让自己显得年轻，好让大家忽视他和斯通之间28岁的年龄差距。）

The movie opens on a black screen, as Woody Allen movies often do, with a tinny orchestra playing the old Cole Porter song 'You Do Something to Me.' From the moment Stanley first sets eyes on Sophie, she does something to him that can't be explained by her lovely face or her wide, earnest eyes, which never narrow in the face of his insults. Whatever Sophie may be up to, Ms. Stone is the real thing, a comedienne of classically flawless delicacy. Watching Sophie in action, Stanley denies the existence of a sixth sense, but Mr. Allen has long had one about matching exceptional actors with roles that allow them to transcend themselves. Now Ms. Stone has earned her turn, and it's hard to say which is more delicious, Sophie's intricate duels with Stanley, who grows dumbfounded by her clairvoyance, or her oscillations between hooded mystic and hearty American, a high-spirited gal from Kalamazoo.

和伍迪•艾伦一贯的风格一样，该片一开场屏幕上就是一片漆黑，同时伴以细微的乐声，演奏的是科尔•波特(Cole Porter)的《You Do Something to Me》。从斯坦利第一次将目光投向索菲开始，斯坦利就被索菲给迷倒了，个中原因无法用她那精致的面孔和热情的大眼睛所能解释，面对斯坦利的无礼，索菲从不曾眯起那双大眼睛。不管片中的索菲想要干什么，斯通却是一个真正传统意义上完美无瑕的喜剧女演员。通过观察索菲的表现，斯坦利否定了第六感的存在。但伍迪•艾伦一直认为，对于演技超群的演员，应配以可以让他们超越自身的角色。如今斯通赢得了这样的机会，很难说哪一处更精彩，到底是索菲与斯坦利（斯坦利逐渐被索菲的洞察力所慑服）的对手戏呢，还是索菲在戴头巾的神秘人和热心的美国人之间的切换。

'Magic in the Moonlight' is filled with flavorsome performances: Mr. McBurney's Howard; Eileen Atkins as Stanley's Aunt Vanessa; Marcia Gay Harden as Sophie's mother; Hamish Linklater as her fatuous suitor; Jacki Weaver as her wealthy sponsor, or her mark. The production is minor in its scale, but not in its substance, which amounts to a summing up of themes that Mr. Allen has explored throughout his creative life: his abiding pessimism, his relentless questioning-often couched as kidding on the square-of life's meaning. It's all the more remarkable, then, that the film's most powerful magic lies in its unquenchable playfulness. Think of it as a 97-minute séance that draws you in, spins you around, subverts your suppositions, levitates your spirits and leaves you giddy with delight.

《魔力月光》名角云集：西蒙•麦克伯尼饰演霍华德；阿特金斯(Eileen Atkins)饰演斯坦利的姑妈瓦妮莎(Vanessa)；马西娅•盖伊•哈登(Marcia Gay Harden)饰演索菲的母亲；哈米什•林克莱特(Hamish Linklater)饰演索菲的追求者；杰姬•韦弗(Jacki Weaver)饰演支持索菲的赞助商。该片规模不大，但内涵不可谓不丰富，几乎可算集伍迪•艾伦所有创造性作品之大成：一直不变的悲观主义，以及对生命意义的不断拷问，这种拷问有时是以严肃搞笑的方式呈现的。更引人注目的是，该片最大魔力在于其让人无法控制的喜剧效果。这部97分钟的片子十分引人入胜，它会将你迷得晕头转向、会让你大跌眼镜、让你放松情绪，还能让你开心不已。