布蘭登費雪復出大作-既醜陋又美好的《我的鯨魚老爸》
“The Whale” may be a film hard to swallow, for it’s dark and ugly, and the word on the street is that you’ll need a whole bunch of tissues. Yet, knowing it’s the comeback of Brendan Fraser, the then superstar from the series “The Mummy,” how can I say no when he has every reason to bring an Oscar for his role?
News flash, Fraser won the Best Actor in the 29th SAG Award! I’m so happy for him.
Spoiler alert if you want to continue reading. You can also click here to read the Chinese review.
早就耳聞《我的鯨魚老爸》是不好下嚥的一部片，因為它既黑暗又醜陋，而且大家都說你需要準備很多衛生紙，但，當我知道這是當年《神鬼傳奇》系列電影當紅炸子雞-布蘭登費雪問鼎奧斯卡的回歸之作時，我怎麼能說不呢？
新聞快報，布蘭登費雪拿到第29屆美國演員工會最佳演員獎！好為他高興呀！
防雷警告在此，你也按此可以直接跳到中文版心得。
Simply put it. In Darren Aronofsky’s“The Whale”, you’ll see the dark side of human beings in its most primitive form. It won’t be comfortable, and at some point, you might even want to shoot “Enough already!” Nevertheless, Fraser’s character Charlie would tell you with his hopelessly optimistic and big innocent blue eye, “people are incapable of not caring.” Then, you’ll find yourself wanting to believe in him.
Charlie was, of course, with sin from his past. He did wrong with his family years ago and didn’t get the happily ever after he thought he would, and now he has to pay too high the price for his redemption.
I can relate to the complex dynamics in Charlie’s relationship with his estranged daughter, Ellie (by the way, the young Sadie Sink from Stranger Things was by all means terrific in her role). I felt Ellie’s anger, anger for Charlie’s walking away, and anger for him still caring enough that he was willing to give everything to her. What should you do when you have every reason to hate someone, but that person happens to love you unconditionally and keep telling you how amazing you are?
Should Charlie use the money and get the time to repair what’s lost? But then he wouldn’t reach the desperate stage when he knew he needed to act before it was too late. Kind of a time paradox, isn’t it?
The ending reminds me of the 2003 film “Big Fish.” Did the runaway dad find his redemption in the end? Maybe best let the audience decide. All I know, and all I want to believe in, is “People are amazing.”
PS, a side note, Ellie’s essay on Moby Dick was exactly how I felt when I read this Herman Melville’s masterpiece for the first time when I was a schoolgirl. How sad it was to fight against a creature incapable of knowing your feeling, despite how strong that was. It just seemed pathetic to me to try to prove something when your audience doesn’t care at all.
If you love this film “The Whale” or are a fellow Brendan Fraser fan, give me a shout-out below or simply drop me an email.
Before you leave, don’t forget to subscribe to this site Second Star To The Right’s newsletter, so that you won’t miss all the fun. You can find my other movie reviews here.
Last but not least, if you find this article useful, you can support me by clicking the icon below so that I can continue to create high-quality content on this website without ads.
Back to the top
（續）中文版心得
總的來說，在導演Darren Aronofsky的這部《我的鯨魚老爸》，你會看到所有人性最原始的黑暗面；可想而知，那不會是愉快的畫面，甚至到某些段落你可能會想大喊「真是夠了！」然而，布蘭登費雪飾演的老爸查理會用他那樂觀到無藥可醫、純真的藍色大眼看著你，告訴你「人是不可能不關心彼此的」；這時，你發現你也被感染開始想相信他了。
查理的過去無疑是對家人有虧欠的，他當年先是對不起自己的家庭，始終也沒迎來預期的快樂結局，到最後的人生他甚至必須付出高額的代價來贖罪。
我可以理解查理和長年疏離的女兒艾莉之間難以言喻的複雜互動(順道一提，因影集《怪奇物語》走紅的年輕女星Sadie Sink 在劇中的演技實在是一流)；艾莉的憤怒，除了是對爸爸當年拋家棄子的憤怒，還有著對他原來依然這麼在乎自己甚至什麼都不要了的憤怒。當你有這麼多站得住腳的理由去恨一個人，但這個人對你卻是愛得無怨無悔，還不斷跟你說你是最美好的存在，這時該怎麼面對呢？
或許你會問，查理是不是應該用那筆錢自救，就有時間修復跟女兒的關係呢？但若不是事情走到了無可挽救的地步，他又怎麼會踏出那一步呢？這樣想的話似乎又是科幻電影常見的時空悖論了。
片尾的結局讓我聯想到2003年的電影《大智若魚》，當年落跑的老爸最後有找到他的救贖嗎？或許交給觀眾各自解讀是最好的安排。我只知道，始終我想相信的，是那句「人都是美好的。」
PS, 還有一個小感想，艾莉那篇對Herman Melville經典【白鯨記】的讀書心得完全說到我的心坎裡，小時候第一次讀這本小說我也是充滿疑惑，跟一個無法理解自己心情的生物戰鬥是好可悲又多麼沒有意義的一件事呀，不論你多麼認真地想證明自己，對方無動於衷又有什麼用呢？導演這個安排完全切中我的心！
如果你喜歡《我的鯨魚老爸》或也是布蘭登費雪的粉絲，歡迎在底下留言或寫email跟我分享。也別忘了可以訂閱我的電子報才不會漏掉最新文章，你還可以在這裡找到我的其他電影心得。
最後，歡迎透過以下讚賞公民 Liker 幫我拍手 5 下或旁邊的咖啡圖示支持我後續的寫作計畫，讓我可以跟大家分享更多優秀的藝文作品，也讓這個網站能以無廣告的方式走得更遠，謝謝。
回到最上面
