一部美式家庭公路電影,幽默抵死、瘋狂荒誕卻又睿智警世。說它小衆另類又不盡然,笑位計算之準確令整部戲全無冷場。起承轉合之齊全亦有着一貫荷里活電影的公式。
現在才說《陽光小小姐》你一定覺得我好out,但它確實是我06年看過最好的電影,另一部叫《斷背山》。如果錯過了,別放過DVD。至叻人類或一帆風順者也許不以為然,曾經滄海的失意人士或現已柳暗花明又一村的朋友,觸動位可多了。
別要被陽光充沛的場景或海報上那鮮豔的黃色騙倒,片中的世界dark過Tim Burton好多電影。要角統統都是losers -- 教人成功之道工作卻處處碰壁的父親、企圖在青春期全面摺埋兼玩自閉的哥哥、被學校學生摒棄而企圖自殺的舅父、為老不尊最後突然暴斃的爺爺。一家人貌合神離又針鋒相對,活得既「騎呢」又千瘡百孔,灰灰的人生像沒有明天似的。
一段漫長旅程是一次困獸鬥。一個選美會重新認識生存之道。一輛壞得連煞車也不能的小小黃巴士是各人互相扶持的溝通工具。全都象徵了後無退路的人生旅程 -- 勇往直前才有出路。誠然是一段"lost & found" 的pilgrimage。
"A real loser is someone who's so afraid of not winning, he doesn't even try." 睿智的爺爺是這樣跟妹妹Olive說的。最後Olive在台上喪跳freak dancing,輸了選美會,卻在人生舞台上成為真正的陽光小小姐。正如最後舅父淡淡的說: "I think we can live this."
學者舅父跟選擇封嘴的哥哥形容Marcel Proust的一段,是本片的最佳寫照:
"French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he's also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh- he gets down to the end of his life... and he looks back and decides
that all those years he suffered -
Those were the best years of his life 'cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste."
Proust窮20年寫的《À La Recherche du Temps Perdu》是法國文學史上最經典的鉅著,沒太多人反對吧? (註: 此書的譯名衆多,英文常見的有《In Search of Lost Time》及《Remembrance of Things Past》,都跟原意差了一點點。個人反而認為中文譯名《追憶逝水年華》最貼近原意。) 現在大陸連漫畫也有出,遲些定要看看。
學者舅父說的"Those are your prime suffering years. You don't get better suffering than that." 就是這種境界吧!
** 送給所有曾經suffer、正在suffer、將會suffer的人。**