除了关于“毒品”的专有名词以外,可以算是六级左右的词汇难度。甜茶2018年同名电影的纪实类原著小说,其实我本人不是很推荐以纪实小说作为入手英文阅读资料,因为纪实小说的本身缺乏相应的趣味性和故事性,但《Beautiful Boy》作为一个记者出身的父亲写出的真实感受仍值得一读。
e-book及有声书资源见评论~
男主角甜茶[Timothee Chalamet]自《call me by your name》走进大众视野后一直攀升的人气,是导致我爬进城里电影院包场看完这部文艺片的原动力。却并不是海报上旧照片里与父亲相拥微笑的“青春成长系影片”, 反而更贴近影片本身宣传的用词: 一部关于救赎的电影。
关于父亲对毒瘾儿子的救赎,也是对被自责湮没的自己的救赎。
整部影片切换父亲和儿子的视角,穿插着过去的回忆和现下崩溃与希冀,是一部粉碎童话式梦想,让人一直皱眉揪心着沮丧,而后轻轻叹气的影片。主人公Nic的每一次康复都像是封印在水晶球里脆弱而完美的自以为真的结局,正如Nic的父亲David在回忆录里自己写的那样:
Hope. I need to believe that everything is going to be all right and at the same time I am unable to accept that it will be.
电影一开始是David在给警局、医院打电话,电影里的镀上一层灰的阳光作为晦暗的主色调,找寻毒瘾发作而消失不见的儿子。原著则对于David内心的撕扯描绘的更为详尽:“Each time I call, I brace myself for the unthinkable. I rehearse the conversation- the stolid, disembodied voice, and the words “he is dead.” I rehearse it to prepare myself. I go toward the thought, pace around it. He is dead.”
无论是David的原著还是据此改编的纪实电影,Nic毒瘾发作的出逃都不止一次,而每次毫无预兆的人间蒸发对David来说不仅仅是又一次的背叛和失望,还有深深的痛苦与自责。
David的《Beautiful Boy》很大的篇幅都仅仅是以一位老父亲的阳光碎碎念着自己儿子的优秀,一个细碎的微笑,在去洛杉矶飞机厂前闹别扭一样的犹豫,具之无细,David与Nic间表达爱意的对话不是“I love you”,而是“Everything.”父亲不止一次对Nic直白而恳切地原谅:“Everything in the world is not enough to describe how I love you.”
预告片里Nic被发现送往医院,David近乎不能够接受自己的儿子在17岁的开朗幽默背后,竟然隐瞒了近4年的吸毒史。David在预告片里的困惑化成悲愤式的嘶吼,或不解地自问:“I thought we were close, closer that most fathers and their sons.”
这份亲近感、纵容感却也成为David日后不断自责的根源,在Nic离家出走的空荡里默然,脑子里混沌着无数以担心为媒的惴惴不安:“Nothing in my life has prepared me for the incapacitating worry when I don’t know where he is. I imagine Nic on the streets of San Francisco, like a wild animal, wounded and desperate.”
观影过程中对那个一次次像孤兽一样逃窜着冲进迷茫的雨幕,把针管里欢愉的迷药注进骨骼瘦消而因握拳暴起的青筋里。咬牙切齿想要指责Nic为什么这么挥霍自己已有幸福的当下,体会到David的无能为力。
除了等待还能做些什么呢?
Waiting is ghastly, but I can do nothing else. With Nic gone, I sink into a wretched and sickeningly family malaise, alternating with a debilitating panic-every minute feeling his absence.
现在回头看预告片仍然会被这一小段戳中泪点,David约Nic在一家餐馆里见面,Nic面对着父亲在周围找家宾馆一起住两天的提议控诉:“You always wants to control me!” David皱眉反问着:“Nic, who are you now?”
Nic像遍体鳞伤的小兽,对他唯一想要信赖却不断辜负的依靠喃喃着“It's me!it's who I am! But you don't like who I am now......”
David是一位极度理智的父亲,他为了彻底了解毒瘾研究了很多药理学和病理学知识,把毒品本身对人的精神伤害归结为一种病,是一种现在人很难以理解更难以接受的病。这种极度渴望的复吸,往往会被轻描淡写的批判为自制力低下,这种在戒毒过程中的暴力倾向,常常被曲解为反人类本质的披露。
让我想到《仍然爱丽丝》里身患早期阿尔茨海默病的爱丽丝说:“我们不再是我们自己,我们变成了疾病本身。”
David在某一次把身体与精神都临近边缘的Nic拉近车子里静默的观望着自己的儿子:“Sometimes I have looked at his face and it was as if I were peering in a mirror. It was not only the physical similarities that I would see. I saw myself hidden in his eyes, in his expressions."
However, now, I see a stranger. And yet he is a stranger whose every part I know intimately. Nic’s addiction seemed to have had a lifeof its own.
电影里Nic在一个AA meeting里的自我介绍诉说了自己与一位医生的对话:“你有什么问题?” “我吸毒而且酗酒。” “这不是你的问题,是你解决问题的方式。”让我想到《小王子》里醉酒的星球里那段--“我喝酒是为了忘掉羞愧,而令我羞愧的是酗酒。”
这段话看似没有逻辑却又包含着最为无奈的妥协,当酒精和毒品带来的欢愉与飘然,麻醉现实世界里因复吸带来的愧疚感,毒药即是解药。
David在原著里描写自己年轻的时候尝试过大麻的经历:“A jackrabbit racing by stopped and stared, My persistent feelings of anxiety and alienation vanished. I felt an almost overwhelming sense of well-being, a sense that everything would be-was-exactly right.”
在观影过程中和David的父亲一般极度好奇Nic吸毒的原因到底会是怎么样铭记终生的打击,但是没有。电影里没有,原著里也没有。
Nic曾对自己的父亲说自己喜爱的作者与音乐人都酗酒和吸大麻,在这种崇拜式的艺术氛围里美化了毒品与酒精的真实伤害。再有原由,可以归结为生活中绵长琐碎的沮丧与无力感被毒品一瞬治愈的迷幻式的充盈,太容易上瘾,又何须一个戏剧化的坎坷让Nic把毒品作为唯一的解脱呢?
Nic: “If it’s any comfort to you, I hate all this, I am not making an excuse, but it’s hard.”
David: “what’s hard?”
Nic: “it’s hard. I don’t know, Everybody drinks. Everybody drinks. Everybody smokes. I am sick of not having the courage to be an absolute nobody.”
在最后的最后,是放弃了追逐,还是厌倦了奔跑呢。David在电影里握着电话对再一次口口声声保证的Nic说了拒绝。
How can a parent not be consumed by his child’s life-or-death struggle? Like many in my straits, I became addicted to my child’s addiction.
原著里的David在最后一刻醒来看着自己尚且年幼的两个孩子,不得不接受自己无法凭借一己之力拯救Nic的事实:“We cannot save Nic.We can support his recovery, but I can’t do it for him. We try to save them. Parents try. Its what Parents do."
PS:最后再说两句
1. e-book azw资源及有声书搬运:更新到评论啦(仅供Kindle阅读)
2.如果以后链接过期可以私信我哦
3. 本版本仅供交流使用,切勿商用,如果喜欢请支持正版(或者打赏我,我去支持正版哈哈哈)
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