Carolina (2004)
Nov 9th, 2006 by Ashley
Came across this in the library. I’ve always liked Julia Stiles and I was surprised to find there’s a movie with her in it that I didn’t know about.
It’s a story about women, family and friendship. (I don’t think that “love” was one of the main theme of this movie.) Carolina and her sisters, Georgia and Maine, were raised by their eccentric grandma. Each of them were named after the State where they were born. (ie. where their drunk father knocked up their mothers.) While Carolina tried hard to run away from her disfunctional family, to have a “normal” life, she realized things are not necessarily what they seem to be. It’s a nice movie. I like it a lot, except the last part when Albert showed up at the family party. It was too Hollywood-ish.
ps. Alessandro Nivola who played Albert in Carolina played Gavin (the star in Newcastle Utd) in Goal! no wonder he looked familiar to me.
再多說些什麼吧,
本片愛情的部份不會讓我特別動心, 一直守護在身邊的鄰居兼好朋友, 一開始我還以為他是 gay. 所謂 Carolina 的男女關係問題 – 永遠無法超過第三次約會, 不是她甩人就是被甩掉 – 感覺有些刻意, 電影中也沒有交代到底原因在哪. 只讓她身邊忽然出現一個完美對象, 然後鄰居兼好朋友兼暗戀的人爆發愛意, 然後一切就莫名其妙順理成章解決了. 本來可以好好描寫探討的故事, 被簡化成 “真命天子就在身邊卻總得到最後關頭才發現” 的公式. 相較之下, Carolina 與她的姐妹和祖母的關係就可親可愛許多. 原來串連整部電影的愛情線倒顯得多餘而無味.
率性奇怪的祖母將兩把刀分別塞入在酒吧內吵得不可開交的兩姐妹手中, 年幼的 Georgia 與已經稍稍懂事的 Carolina 對站在酒吧後的暗巷, Carolina 走近拿過 Georgia 的刀子, 對她說 “We are not raised right.” 讓電影有個迷人而詭異的開始. 追求”正常”的 Carolina, 從沒有工作過的 Georgia, 還在念中學很執著於自己能力的 Maine, 開放, 特立獨行, 堅持自己想法主張的祖母, 酒鬼爸爸, 老是被關的姨婆… 這個嚴重功能失調的家庭, 充滿又酸又辣, 想恨卻又恨不下去的親情.
有時候電影不需要傳達什麼訊息, 宣導什麼理念. 有時電影只是單純的呈現生命的某一個面貌, 交錯的人際與生活環境