“a shoddy whodunit doesn’t do justice to a shimmering Streep shoehorned in a role in which you have never seen her before."
A less-heralded movie from La Streep’s impeccable track record, which is rather unanticipated because, STILL OF THE NIGHT is the much-anticipated follow-up ofwriter-director Robert Benton’s Oscar champ KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979), which as we all know, won Streep her first golden statuette. So it is quite intriguing to dredge it up from oblivion and burrow into the unwonted qualitative drop.
Gestated by Benton and his regular collaborator David Newman well before KRAMER VS. KRAMER, this neo-Hitchcock pastiche probably is a carte blanchereward in the wake of his landslide triumph with the former, however, the last thing one might expect from an acclaimed screenwriter like Benton is the cockamamie plot in this shoddy whodunit, which toys with a man’s dreadful thought of smitten with a drop-dead gorgeous type, whom he suspect might want to rub him out, a tantalizing nod to human’s morbid obsession with sex and death.
As this leanpsychosexual study plays out, a personable if overtly dithering Roy Scheider moderately ekes out that peculiar ambivalence, he plays Dr. Sam Rice, a Manhattan shrink bewitched by Brooke Reynolds (Streep), the mistress of his recently murdered client George Bynum (Sommer), and every evidence intimates that Brooke is the killer, including a slipshod second murder which doesn’t make much sense in light of the context, or lousy filmmaking so to speak, for sure, relegating a paper-thin secondary character as the knife-wielding culprit in the reveal doesn’t help, whose schlocky comeuppance is as phony as that preposterous “green box”dream analysis.
Hopping on the film’s slim pickings of merits, Benton at least, keeps the film’s noir and nocturnal ambience in check, hoarily utilizes jump-scares and (repeatedly) a grisly dummy to amp up suspense and spookiness in spite of its strangely languid pace, but what captures our attention is none other than Streep’s sole bash as a femme fatale spiffed up with Hitchcockian blonde tresses (of course, Benton is not above to sexualize her in that ludicrous back-massaging episode, which only leaves us wondering the incredible work ethic of her oriental masseur), she is gorgeous but beset with jitters, calculated, defensive and somewhat bluntly standoffish, conferred with a munificent long take for poignant explication of her past (a treatment would otherwise be replaced with action-packed flashback if the actress is not up for the task), and she nails it beautifully, again, which comes off as a maddening case of underutilizing a real trouper’s talent, short-changed by the story itself, so is a hale Jessica Tandy, not a man's nattering mother stereotype, but a more rational mind that had it been given the chance, might solve this nonsensical mystery way ahead of her libido-driven son.
referential entries: Benton’s KRAMER VS. KRAMER (1979, 8.3/10), Brian de Palma’s DRESSED TO KILL (1980, 5.4/10).
没想过梅姨年轻的时候还演过这么烂的剧本
梅姨那一头金发啊,真的美。老派的惊悚片了,虽然直觉告诉我她不会是凶手,但导演还是有能力让你怀疑自己的直觉。凶杀梦境结合现实,还蛮新颖的。。。
喜欢片中由光影渲染出的紧张氛围,比如在公园里跟踪时被影片画面四周晕影所突出的脚步特写,还有在门铃处凶手举刀的影子。Meryl Streep在片中的扮相真是太美了。
美丽的梅姨!
同类标配是硬汉侦探配蛇蝎美人。罗伊·沙伊德尔根本不是男主的料(想想鲍嘉),饰演的心理医生非常娘,独闯洗衣房显得可笑。最后救美居然是靠被扎一刀后跑出来喊一嗓子。梦境里小熊眼睛被幼女抠掉,流下鲜血浸染两腿之间,非常典型的恋童癖性梦,而后女童追逐梦者不放,是道德压力的直观体现。梅丽尔斯特里普的全裸出镜。按摩镜头细腻流动。手夹着烟亲吻男主,主被动一目了然。剧本和调度不是平庸,更接近拙劣。罗伯特本顿在《克莱默夫妇》(1979)三年后拍了本作,证明了自己不是一个多面手。
「We start by considering the possibility that we're dealing with a jealous woman. He thinks he has some sort of control over the jealous woman. Until something goes wrong and she gets loose.」「What am I doing now may be irrational. Maybe it is foolish. But I gotta do it.」
梅姨年轻的时候
剧情平庸也就看人和摄影(Nestor Almendros)。Roy演心理医生花白头发眼镜一戴不留胡子,呜呜可酥了,问题是我觉得他和男演员对戏似乎比和女演员来电,结果这里跟美美的梅姨还不如跟演他也是心理医生的妈的Tandy老太有戏,难怪没人叫他去演爱情片
其实这片还是很80恐怖的指向性凶手往往不会是凶手,医生梦境分析窗外摄影都还不错。不可否认看过梅姨颜值最高的一个片胜在了发型!
票房很差/[碧玉惊魂夜][1.85G][国英双语]
梅姨好美啊我眼睛都直了
Meryl太年轻太美了,妆容发型一看就是希区柯克范儿的女主。
6.5 / 说是惊悚悬疑片倒不如说是梅梅舔颜片。悬疑与爱情的双线氛围都还塑造不错,唯一的恐怖元素 梦中的小女孩也很难不令人印象深刻。但如果女主不是梅梅的话我肯定看不下去。。。梅梅的短发造型实在太惊艳了!正当我觉得片子好慢搞得我昏昏欲睡时,梅梅一出现一下子把我美醒了,比同期的《The French Lieutenant's Woman》还要惊心动魄的美!赏演技的同时也彻底被迷倒,加一星˚₊✩‧₊( •ॢ◡-ॢ)
拖沓,可笑。
毫无疑问,本片是梅姨颜值最高的片子~
BSC频道HD双语字幕91分钟,寡淡,努力塑造的意境并不自然。
MS演希區柯克的片子……anyway……
前面的误导铺垫做得有点过了,圆不回去的点太多,最后的反转很坑爹。氛围非常棒,让我想到Cat People。男主(角色,不是演员)很二;以为Jessica Tandy会很有戏,结果是5分钟酱油;两部喜剧不算,这好像是第一次看Meryl正经演femme fatale,各种微妙的小表情拿捏得无可挑剔。
梅丽尔·斯特里普年轻时很美,现在很成熟很智慧。
想学希区柯克那一套,可是太弱了,为了梅姨的美颜忍着看完,80年代的悬疑竟然也有这么烂的…80年代的喜剧倒都是心头爱啊~CCTV-6