I guess Ang Lee will definitely like " Their Finest", because this play is about the "fake drama", the proposition of truth and fiction, which he has always been obsessed with creating - just like Wang Jiazhi's immersion in "Lust, Caution" In the fake role, but dedicate the most real human nature and emotion.
The story of "Their Finest" is based on fiction, only the background is real, but so what? Over and over again in the film, "real" and "fiction" are discussed with fake creators' hands. Catrin and Buckley argue whether the details of the film are real, but Buckley firmly believes that the point of the film is not to reproduce the real. This discussion must be empathetic to the creators, especially those who have written scripts and collected long and tedious data. No matter whether the details of the movie are completely real or not, the creators have devoted completely "real" emotions to the fictional life. The most important thing is that the people who watch (the audience) are immersed in the "fictional" movie world, and the same true feelings are revealed, whether they cry or cry. Laugh, to soothe and release the "real" pain in their hearts.
Apart from the discussion of "truth" and "fiction", the most interesting part of this play is actually the mutual mapping between drama and reality. There are quite a lot of intertexts between "play" and "play within play" in the play. Buckley wants to write a scene in the script where a soldier saves a puppy. This is a skill that many screenwriters know (like Zhang Zhen's cat in "Embroidered Spring Knife"), so that the hero also has a gentle side, making the character easier for the audience to share. Affection. What's interesting is that there is a puppy next to Bill Nighy in the play. Bill Nighy plays an old star who was once brilliant but not what he used to be. He is stubborn and cute, and that dog just enriches his character. .
If you look closely at this play, the role of Bill Nighy is actually an extra sub-line, which is quite functional, but it enriches the rhythm and joy of the whole play, and provides the needs of the play. The "star halo" (Buckley and Catrin are the protagonists, but they are completely inferior to Bill Nighy's star brilliance). And watching the "play within a play" star soldier Carl, who was invited from the United States, was abruptly inserted in the whole movie, isn't it just to provide a "star halo", doesn't it echo with Bill Nighy outside the play? Like bill nighy, carl is also responsible for the "joy" part, and the most interesting part of the play is that bill nighy teaches carl to act, so that the two roles with the same functions are connected in the "play" and "play within play" .
The more obvious intertextuality is, of course, the growth of the protagonist catrin. The hero Johnnie in Dunkiel's engraving is seriously injured. In the end, he relies on his lover, one of the twins, Rose, to save the crisis. In contrast to Buckley's male hero-based thinking, he has a female self-consciousness. And the fate of catrin who wrote this scene is also the same "off-screen", so although Buckley's accident seemed melodrama, it became inevitable in this movie. Buckley was a rather patriarchal man at the beginning. Characters, always despise catrin's female thinking, and feel that "movies" are naturally dominated by male characters, but Buckley's departure will force catrin to be independent and strong, no matter inside or outside the scene, he must go to the complete and real " female" role.
I like that the movie arranges Buckley's accident to happen on set, which makes the whole love story more closely related to the "movie" and has a sense of fatalism. In the end, what this play really wants to say is the "movie" itself. There is a particularly moving part of the play. Catrin finished writing the script overnight and then re-created a story about her and Buckley on the beach. They had a fight that night, but in the story, Catrin turned her back and confided her love to Buckley. Look, it's the same as "actually fake and real". Although the story is fabricated, it reveals the author's most real emotions and expectations, and uses "story" and "movie" to heal himself.
This movie is certainly not that kind of art film, and it has a lot of commercial calculations, just like Buckley's script for "play within a play", it should be good-looking, comedy, and the ending should be tragic and emotional. . But no matter how contrived the story is, the original intention of the "movie" in this play is particularly sincere. Just like in the end, after Catrin was hit by life and planned to give up the screenplay, she went to the theater to watch the movie she wrote and saw The movie touched so many audiences and soothed their hearts wounded in the war. That kind of situation: moving, shocking, and kind.
Even if there are such and such sufferings in life, continue to write, although thousands of people will go. Using life to affect life, isn't this the charm of "movie"?
View more about Their Finest reviews
