(Text / Yang Shiyang)
At first, more people wanted to see the Hulk Ruffalo's dazzling skills playing two roles out of curiosity. Later, those "Super British" fans who were watching the lively were defeated in front of this show. They may find it inexplicable, because the story has no dramatic opening and closing, and after a violent beginning, it is plunged into endless triviality of reality, and Ruffalo uses a bitter look to interpret a long period of doom that seems to never be shaken off. Like his Dominic, who yells, "We're cursed" after going through so much pain.
Yes, if you want to briefly summarize "I Know It's True", the most intriguing core of this realistic story focusing on trivial life may be the confrontation and tearing between "being cursed" and "getting rid of the curse".
It was destined to receive polarizing evaluations from the beginning, and those who hated it would be angered by its repression, while those who loved it could experience the turbulent waves of life under the stagnation of thick mist.
Based on a best-selling novel published in 1998, "I Know It's True" tells the incredible half-life of two twin brothers.
It all started with a shocking self-mutilation incident in which Thomas chopped off his right hand with a knife while reading the Bible in the library. Brother Dominic rushed to the hospital, only to hear his brother Thomas hoarsely begging him not to sign off on his operation, claiming it was free will and that he was atonement for America. After a painful decision, Dominic agreed, but he was doomed to fail to convince the judge that the older brother, who had a psychiatric record, was sentenced to readmission without any suspense.
The thread of the story begins to split into two, one moving forward, telling Dominic's exhaustion to bring his brother home from the heavily guarded, chaotic intensive care unit, and one backward, telling the story of a book he left behind from his grandfather. In his autobiography, he strives to explore the secrets of his family's life experience.
"I Know It's True" only focuses on one family, so constricted, yet so majestic, it uses the lives of ordinary people to quietly link the history of the United States, the crimes and punishments long ago, the sores and wounds of wars after wars scar. American media reviews called it an "epic family saga," and yes, it wasn't a cliché of perfunctory positioning, and the story was enough to define the concept of "family epic." It seems to describe the troubles faced by a low-level blue-collar worker in the United States, but in fact, it inadvertently and ingeniously traverses a hundred years in a light-hearted way.
Some people are happy to compare it with "Manchester by the Sea". It is indeed easy to recall the famous story. After all, Dominic also experienced the bitterness and pain of the death of a child and separation from his wife, but this story has a deeper meaning than the latter. Meaning and heavier background, it creates a sense of vast dust in addition to the real pain of those who lost their loved ones. People drift away like dust, and they always feel that there is some indescribable power to laugh at the world, and people's Struggling and resisting seem extremely tragic. Dominic has gone through all the unbelievable pains: growing up tremblingly under the threat of his stepfather; his dependent brother who had a psychotic episode when he was in college; the death of his child; , such a writing method that brings extreme pain to a person on a large scale is too easy to be distorted, and if you are not careful, you will become bloody because of excessive force, but in this story, all this seems stable, solid and credible. It became a cursed trial. Those who are tried are either melted down or will be reborn. Therefore, Dominica, who struggles to survive in the world and disdains religion, has always been shrouded in a layer of divine brilliance. This silent and tenacious man has been toyed with by fate, but has been regrouping. From this point of view, compared to the elder brother who was madly shouting atonement for America, Dominic was silently atonement. But where the guilt came from, he did not know.
The success of this story depends to some extent on the way it is narrated. The whispered, somber first-person confession strung together the present and the past, and there are inadvertently ingenious retrospectives and hooks. In addition, Lufa Luo also really contributed shocking acting skills. He invented two sets of unique expressions, bitter and helpless, but always enduring humiliation and burden, his uncompromising younger brother, and a dazed, chaotic, soul-flying, but extremely persistent mental illness. elder brother.
In fact, although "I Know This Is True" focuses on describing the trivial reality, it does not lack suspense. Its biggest suspense has been suspended there from the beginning - who is the biological father of the brothers. The story hints, perhaps, that they were the result of a tyrannical, twisted grandfather who raped his own daughter, but in the end it was an unexpected answer. It's hard for you to say whether it's a light lift or a light lift, and which one is heavier, no one can tell. This story is full of metaphors, about the fate of the natives, about the struggles of the first generation of immigrants, about the rift between races, about the myths of violence, faith and war in the United States... This story is the most personal epic and the most vocal. The complicated solo is vast and timeless, revealing a little religious connotation from time to time, and the true meaning of redemption, trial, and cleansing is hidden in the most authentic details of life.
Even if "I Know It's True" is adapted into a series, it still retains a strong literary quality. Facing the six episodes, I feel like I'm reading, not watching, it's like writing every word. Not scene after scene changing.
Ruffalo chose it, and cared so much about it, perhaps because it was the exact opposite of a superhero, a huge, conspicuous opposite, so nuanced, so real. Compared with the omnipotence of superheroes, the role he plays here is everywhere, but he silently shows a kind of "incompetence", which is a "hero" in another sense.
The story is realistic, but there is always a surreal light, and when you follow that light, it will fall back to reality, and eventually you will understand that reality itself emits a surreal light. How can there be any realism in this world? Our life itself is like a miracle, but some are broken and some are complete, and we decide our joys and sorrows, luck and misfortune. The most unique charm of this story lies in its internal contradiction and self-contradictory tension. It seems trivial and worthless, but there are endless unbelievable legends hidden in it. Perhaps this is the prototype of all of our lives. When you The trivialities of life are narrated by a unique tone and examined from a different perspective, and it will shine. It was the moment when the miracle manifested itself, and not everyone was lucky enough to encounter it.
(This article was first published in the Beijing Youth Daily column, unauthorized reprinting is strictly prohibited)
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