電影重現(xiàn)奧巴馬夫婦的第一次約會(huì)

“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.”

“有其他東西在吸引我，”有著一對(duì)招風(fēng)耳的瘦高年輕男子說(shuō)道。“我想知道自己能不能寫書(shū)，或者在民權(quán)方面獲得有影響力的地位，”他又補(bǔ)充。“你是說(shuō)在政治上?”漂亮的年輕女子問(wèn)道。他聳了聳肩。“也許吧。”

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). 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. 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.

在浪漫田園詩(shī)般的電影《南邊有你》(Southside With You)的這個(gè)時(shí)刻，這兩個(gè)健談的人已經(jīng)進(jìn)入親密的邊走邊談階段——人們?cè)诔蔀閼偃酥巴鶗?huì)有那么一個(gè)階段——他們能從白天談到晚上，第二天接著談(再過(guò)一天還在談)。他們漫步于芝加哥的一個(gè)又一個(gè)街區(qū)——在這兒逗留一會(huì)兒，開(kāi)車去那兒逛一會(huì)兒——他們也沿著記憶中的小巷漫步。他來(lái)自夏威夷和印度尼西亞。她來(lái)自芝加哥南城。他將要去哈佛讀法律。她已從那里畢業(yè)，正在從事法律工作。你猜得出來(lái)后續(xù)吧。

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

甜蜜、輕松而又真誠(chéng)的《南邊有你》是對(duì)巴拉克和米歇爾·奧巴馬(Barack and Michelle Obama)第一次約會(huì)的虛構(gòu)重現(xiàn)。對(duì)一部電影來(lái)說(shuō)，它有一種奇怪的自負(fù)，不是因?yàn)榧s會(huì)平淡無(wú)奇，而是因?yàn)榫巹〖鎸?dǎo)演理查德·坦恩(Richard Tanne)誤把真誠(chéng)當(dāng)成真實(shí)。他顯然對(duì)奧巴馬夫婦感興趣，不過(guò)他太過(guò)謹(jǐn)慎，太多崇拜，所以這部影片沒(méi)什么好挖掘的——除了令人傾慕的人物。你經(jīng)常能在片中看到兩人像初次相見(jiàn)時(shí)那樣深情對(duì)望，不過(guò)這部電影似乎主要是為他們最終走向白宮做鋪墊。“你顯然具有演講才能，”米歇爾說(shuō)。他的確有(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. 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, 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.”

故事的開(kāi)頭是米歇爾(蒂卡·桑普特[Tika Sumpter]飾)跟父母談起巴拉克(帕克·索耶斯[Parker Sawyers]飾)(米歇爾的爸爸問(wèn)道，“巴拉克·奧什么?”)，而巴拉克跟外祖母談起米歇爾。當(dāng)時(shí)他在一家公司做暑期實(shí)習(xí)生，米歇爾是他的指導(dǎo)老師。巴拉克追求米歇爾，而米歇爾覺(jué)得他們不合適。不過(guò)，他帶著溫和的自信堅(jiān)持不懈，通過(guò)尋找專題演講、一次公園長(zhǎng)凳午餐以及參觀一個(gè)藝術(shù)展，一點(diǎn)一點(diǎn)打破了她的防線。在藝術(shù)展上，這位秘密追求者背誦了格溫德琳·布魯克斯(Gwendolyn Brooks)的短詩(shī)《我們真的很酷》(We Real Cool)，這首令人不安的預(yù)示死亡的不祥詩(shī)歌，講述的是幾名打臺(tái)球的年輕男子。詩(shī)的最后一句是：“我們很快就會(huì)死。”

Like Michelle and Barack’s journey through Chicago, the poem raises a cluster of ideas — literary, political, philosophical — about Barack, suggesting where he’s at and where he’s going. Mr. Tanne has clearly made a close study of his real-life inspirations, yet his movie is soon hostage to the couple’s history. His characters feel on loan and, despite his actors, eventually make for dull company because too many lines and details serve the great-man-to-be story rather than the romance. At the art show, when Barack explains that the painter Ernie Barnes did the canvases featured in the sitcom “Good Times,” it isn’t just a guy trying to impress a date; it’s a setup for another big moment.

與米歇爾和巴拉克在芝加哥的旅程一樣，這首詩(shī)反映出巴拉克在文學(xué)、政治和哲學(xué)方面的觀點(diǎn)——表明他身在何處，將去往哪里。坦恩顯然仔細(xì)研究過(guò)巴拉克的真實(shí)生活，來(lái)作為創(chuàng)作靈感的來(lái)源。不過(guò)他的電影很快受制于這對(duì)伴侶的歷史。盡管他選用了很好的演員，但這些角色感覺(jué)像是臨時(shí)借來(lái)的，最終淪為乏味的陪襯，因?yàn)橛刑嗯_(tái)詞和細(xì)節(jié)是為他后來(lái)成為偉人做鋪墊，而不是為了講述這段戀情。在藝術(shù)展上，巴拉克提到厄尼·巴恩斯(Ernie Barnes)的那幅油畫曾經(jīng)出現(xiàn)在情景喜劇《好時(shí)光》(Good Times)里——這不只是要展現(xiàn)一個(gè)努力給約會(huì)對(duì)象留下好印象的人，而是為了給另一個(gè)重要時(shí)刻做鋪墊。

Ms. Sumpter’s enunciation has a near-metonymic precision suggestive of Mrs. Obama’s, while Mr. Sawyers’s gestural looseness, playful smile and lanky saunter will be familiar. Mr. Sawyers has the better, more satisfying role, partly because of who he plays, though also because Barack is more complex and vulnerable. He is the one with the thorny father issues who is trying to win over the girl (the audience, the nation). He’s hard to resist even if, by the time he takes Michelle to a community meeting in a housing project — where the aspirations of the family in “Good Times” meet their real-world counterpart — his words sound like footnotes in a political biography.

桑普特的談吐很容易讓人聯(lián)想起奧巴馬夫人，而索耶斯放松的姿態(tài)、調(diào)皮的微笑和瘦長(zhǎng)的體態(tài)更是讓人覺(jué)得熟悉。索耶斯的角色更好、更令人滿意的一個(gè)原因是他飾演的是巴拉克，不過(guò)也是因?yàn)榘屠烁鼜?fù)雜、更脆弱。他是那個(gè)在父親的問(wèn)題上經(jīng)歷坎坷、正努力贏取那個(gè)姑娘(乃至觀眾和整個(gè)國(guó)家)芳心的人。你很難抗拒他，盡管他帶著米歇爾參加一個(gè)住房項(xiàng)目的社區(qū)會(huì)議時(shí)——《好時(shí)光》中那個(gè)家庭的愿望出現(xiàn)在了現(xiàn)實(shí)世界里——他的話聽(tīng)起來(lái)像是一本政治傳記的腳注。

Mr. Obama wrote one such book, “The Audacity of Hope,” in which he describes this first date in a scene that’s echoed in the movie. “I asked if I could kiss her,” Mr. Obama writes, before cutting loose his smooth operator: “It tasted of chocolate.” It’s no surprise that Mr. Obama is a better writer than Mr. Tanne and has a stronger sense of drama. But it’s too bad that while Mr. Obama’s story about his date has tension, a moral and politics, Mr. Tanne’s has plaster saints. Abraham Lincoln was long dead when John Ford polished the presidential halo in the 1939 film “Young Mr. Lincoln.” Mr. Obama hasn’t even left office, but the cinematic hagiography has begun.

奧巴馬寫過(guò)這樣一本書(shū)：《無(wú)畏的希望》(The Audacity of Hope)，他在其中描述了第一次約會(huì)的情景——電影中也有這一幕。“我問(wèn)她我能不能親她，”奧巴馬寫道。然后顯現(xiàn)出他很會(huì)甜言蜜語(yǔ)的一面：“那感覺(jué)像品嘗巧克力。”奧巴馬當(dāng)然是比坦恩更擅于寫作，有更強(qiáng)的戲劇感。不過(guò)，糟糕的是，奧巴馬關(guān)于那次約會(huì)的故事有道德和政治方面的張力，而坦恩的故事里只有道德完人。約翰·福特(John Ford)在1939年的影片《青年林肯》(Young Mr. Lincoln)中給這位總統(tǒng)涂上光環(huán)時(shí)，亞伯拉罕·林肯(Abraham Lincoln)早已過(guò)世。而奧巴馬尚未離任，將他描繪成圣人的電影就已經(jīng)上映了。