我很在乎

这部剧就是在以黑色幽默讲述法定监护人这个概念。所以女主借此一路飞黄腾达，到最后恶有恶报都没什么问题。那问题在哪？在叙事，在剧情的安排，在观众情绪的把握。

简单来说，就是观众看得不爽。

回顾影片过程，大部分人的爽点在于，女主被黑帮抓，以及影片结尾短短的几秒钟。

然而这两段都很短，而且都不是高潮。一个是剧情铺垫，一个是最后结尾。

高潮放哪了？高潮被安排在了，女主从车里爬出来，把牙安上，然后反杀黑帮那段。

爽吗？爽个屁！你不知道我看到女主女友醒过来时有多失望。

我压根没法跟着导演的节奏，觉得把牙安回去有多酷，潜入黑帮司机家多么勇敢。我只觉得黑帮怎么那么蠢，小恶魔那么弱，梦回权力最后一季，智商下线，逼格全无。

那这个怎么拍才爽？这个很简单，叙事和高潮得换过来，换成女主吃瘪，就行了。

一开始俄罗斯黑帮因为轻敌，被反咬一下，然后被女主设局举报，被警察围追堵截。最后卧薪尝胆，趁女主大意了，没有闪之时，一套接化发。

然后还是回到女主被绑的画面，这次对话简单： 女主：“你现在抓住我了，钻石也拿回去了，要杀要刮悉听尊便。” 黑帮头子：“不，我要你跟我成立公司。” 女主：“？？？”

然后接上CEO结尾。这不比之前得痛快的多？立意也不还在？

还有那老太太，多憋屈啊，出来时你给个煽她丫的一巴掌的镜头能怎么样？ 结果搁这最后一笑泯恩仇呢？

带有资本主义成分的社会，始终是以强者的利益为终极目标的。而所谓的公平和法制，看上去为弱者提供了保障，但实际上它并不带来绝对意义上的好处。它们只是工具而已，效果的好与坏取决于公平的制造集团和法律的操纵集团。只要是被人创造出来的事物，就有被人利用操控的空间，尤其是在这个事实容易被捏造，而规则的执行者越来越依赖于条文和被捏造的事实的社会上。大多数人都喜欢做一个追随者，他们只需要根据社会公认的规则做出判断和行动就可以获得应有的报酬，但倘若打破砂锅问到底，焉知祸福？因为在资本的社会中，没人有会因你的善良、勇敢、正义本身让你衣食无忧。

捕食者和猎物的角色也会动态变化，没有人可以成为注定的、绝对的捕食者，剧中的被监护的老人们，在年轻时大多属于成功人士，但在失去力量后，也难免成为猎物。终其一生在这个弱肉强食的社会中苦心经营，即使运用不公的手段，但还是难逃被系统吞噬的悲剧命运。

和资本一样可怕的是擅于应用制度者，他甚至可以让资本都束手无策。最可怕的是资本和制度的联合，后果就是用资本的力量将制度的漏洞指数级放大。试问，现实生活中多少莽夫可以不顾法律地去杀人呢？所以电影的结局看似喜剧，其实还是悲剧。

一开始营造的氛围不错，确实细思极恐，孤巢老人被间接隔离失去自由直至去世也无人问津。但是那么明目张胆的变卖委托人的资产就没人注意吗？

还有就是女主无来由的勇气就挺突然的，总觉得怪怪的。可能这就是剧中主打的黑色幽默？

剧情各种漏洞就不说了。毒枭大佬的小弟们业务能力也太差了吧，下手三个就成功一个路人医生。最后想说的是毒枭大佬的安保还没有养老院强，说绑就被绑了哈哈。

这个片子讲了个什么故事呢？我给你们举个例子吧！ 某天你突然说阿里巴巴是你创建的，声称是马云夺走了你的财产。 没有任何资质，任何证明，任何证人，马云甚至没收到传票的情况下，法院就把阿里巴巴判给了你。 马云上门来找你，扇了你一耳光，你把监控发出去，说他是神经病。 于是精神病院的人来了，也不做鉴定，也不做评估，直接就把马云送进了精神病院。 建林听到这个消息后不爽了，气的不行，准备来收拾你。 你被建林逮到还拽的不行，说不给你一千万，就不放马云。 建林脑子气坏了，甚至都忘了随便找个心理评估师就能去精神病院把人带出来。 就在建林把你丢进万达浇筑好的地基里时，你突然爆发了绿巨人的力量，一脚踹碎地基冲了出来。 然后你还不想着跑。 你想着的是报仇。 怎么报仇？ 先染个头发登记都不带登记的，就大摇大摆的走进WD总部。 然后再用出无数公司商业间谍都没有的算命大法，准确算出建林的位置。 恰好建林的保镖还都瞎了，于是你拿着根破电棍，一把破麻醉针突破了保镖重围制服了建林。 然后在众目睽睽之下，从WD总部带走了建林，丝毫不在乎那些醒来的保镖会不会来追杀你。 这是一波什么操作？约翰威克看了都紧皱眉头的操作。 不知道过去了多久，建林从医院里醒来。 你坐在床边，一脸得意的告诉建林。 我已经把你带到了老挝，你是没有身份的无业游民，你的WD得被判给我了。 建林慌了，完全忘记了一开始他帮马云伪造的身份。 甚至都忘记了，自己还有手下还有思聪。 慌张的建林，要求和你合作。 你们一起创建了商业帝国。 这个片子说明了什么？ 编剧不会写装逼的剧情，就不要写，不然到时候只剩下了尬逼，还是老尬逼。

这个世界的真实运行规律不是公平竞争，公平竞争只是对多数老实温顺的绵羊大众来说的，社会金字塔顶端的精英们才是狮子。

影片为了表达这个主题，用了一个极度惊悚的案例。一个外表靓丽内心凶残的女性格雷森，把年老体衰的有一定经济基础的老人当肥羊，先勾结老人的医生，由医生出具该老人需要专业护理的报告，然后由法院判决拥有专业养老院的格雷森获得老人监护权，然后老人被依法强制住进格雷森的养老院，最后，老人成为养老院的囚犯，老人财产被格雷森巧取豪夺。只是这一次的肥羊老太太，有个黑帮毒贩大佬的儿子，故事由此展开……

虽然故事情节有的地方有点生硬，比如格雷森和她的女友不但内心狠辣，而且也是犯罪高手。比如小恶魔饰演的毒贩大佬过于弱鸡，完全不是养老院院长格雷森的对手。但是故事确实曲折精彩，让人猜不到结局。演员演技也完全在线。

令人惊悚的地方除了格雷森的恶毒凶残，我们注定是狮子眼中的绵羊。个人感觉最惊悚的就是本片的养老模式，我们每个人都会面临养老问题，无论当年多风光，退休金多优厚，手上有几套房，我们都有脑子开始痴呆或者需要护理的那一天。进养老院的那一天就是走向屠宰场的时候。这个产业不但在美国有市场，在我们这里绝对是一大群狮子盯着的庞大的朝阳产业。一切都是合理合法，而且政策扶持保护，以房养老已经在实施。我们注定就是养老院的绵羊，差别只是养老院院长的凶残程度不同而已。养老院虐待老人的新闻经常出现，养老院一床难求的新闻也经常出现。

在现在这样一个经济社会，绵羊注定会被吞噬，老绵羊更是毫无反抗能力，哪个成功的集团连锁式的养老院长不是格雷森？

【首发于公众号 写作疑难杂症诊疗室】

I Care A Lot 一句话影评： The storytelling is so good, acting so good, until you realize the story is so … 三观不正 😤

If you are intrigued by Rosamond Pike’s unfeeling, first-rate psychopathic smart bitch in Gone Girl, then you will watch I Care a Lot as soon as you have the chance. Well, that’s what I did. And it was the first movie I watched in 2023 — by Jove, how it angered me.

Two minutes into the movie, it is living up to the poster’s promise of badass-ness. Pike plays Marla Grayson, who does the voice-over in the opening monologue synopsizing her worldview: this is a world of either winners or losers, predators or prey, lions or lambs. Black or white, no middle ground. An all too familiar worldview to the point of hackneyed, but Pike’s delivery, her cadence, is top-notch. In this strictly dichotomous world, Marla declares:

“I am not a lamb. I am a fucking lioness.”

Suspense is a foundational trick to hold the audience’s attention. The opening scene does this by the discord between what you see on the screen and what you hear. You hear Marla briefing you on her Ayn Randian philosophy (which has a lot of avid supporters in the far right, something to keep in mind when thinking about why the movie is terrible), but you see images of an orderly care facility where the staff seem attentive to the elderly, and then a disheveled, chubby man trying to break into the facility, only to be quickly seized by some brawny guards.

If you are minimally familiar with the science of storytelling, you know that suspense helps to release dopamine, the so-called happiness hormone. When you anticipate a reward, in the case of storytelling, when you expect that everything will be accounted for by the end of the movie, your brain produces dopamine. This opening scene is your first shot of dopamine.

The next scene quickly explains what is going on. We are now in a courtroom. Turns out, the mother of the disheveled man, Feldstrom, is in the care facility, to which he is denied access. The court appoints Marla as his mother’s guardian, giving her license to deny Feldstrom visits to his own mother. Marla is also entitled to sell the mother’s house, car, valuable belongings and then use the money to pay herself for her service as the court-appointed guardian.

If this sounds crooked, it is. Feldstrom adds that Marla is a total stranger both to him and his mother, and his mother has explicitly said that she doesn’t want to be put in a care facility.

Just when you think Marla is the bad guy in the story, here comes the twist.

Marla defends herself, first by portraying the son as irresponsible: “Your mother couldn’t cope on her own. A doctor diagnosed her with dementia, Mr Feldstrom, and wrote an affidavit recommending immediate action be take for her safety. You have amply opportunity to move your mother into a care facility or into your home. You did neither.” When parents abuse or for whatever reason can’t take proper care of their children, we think it reasonable for the government and the judicial system to step in. The same goes to elderly who aren’t properly cared for. So far so good, Marla seems reasonable.

When Feldstrom objects to Marla’s accusation by saying that her mother begged not to be taken to a care facility, Marla makes a clever distinction: “You can’t care for her by doing what she wants. You have to do what she needs. And that is why I can care better than a family member because I have no skin in the game. … yes, I oversaw the sale of some of her assets to finance [her bills in the care facility], and yes, I pay myself, too, because caring, sir, is my job. … All-day, every day, I care.”

You have to admire the concision in her speech, her dazzling use of differentiation, addressing counterargument, and appealing to ethos. And it makes sense. Kids surely want all the sugar they can get and more. But that’s not what they need. The same logic applies to those with dementia. Marla becomes less the greedy predator preying on the vulnerable, and more the strong-willed businesswoman who does what might seem ruthless but necessary.

She continues: “I care for those who are in need of protection. Protection from apathy, protection from their own pride, and quite often, protection from their own children. … offspring, who are willing to let their parents starve in squalor and struggle with pain rather than dip into what they see as their inheritance to pay for the necessary care.” By this point, we begin to suspect that Feldstrom is actually the greedy one.

At the same time, Marla’s argumentation is so tactical, the intonation so calculated, that it just lacks authenticity. You can’t be entirely sure: is Marla a good guy, or a bad guy? There, uncertainty over the main character — you have your second shot of dopamine. With questions like this, we keep watching.

Mind you, this is only less than seven minutes into the movie, and Feldstrom has gone from being the bad guy to the not so bad guy and then again the bad (in the sense of incompetent) guy, and the ruthless Marla with her problematic worldview becomes a respectable professional.

这么紧凑的人物翻转制造了「爽剧」的效果。不得不佩服好莱坞故事产业的成熟。

The next scene, we see Marla Grayson walking down the stairs outside the courthouse, with full-on badassery. Feldstrom comes after her. He is wearing a red cap again. Looks like he can be a Trump supporter. And he’s calling her “bitch.” He’s in a rage. Words are flushing out of his mouth: “I hope you get raped, and I hope you get murdered, and I hope you get killed!” And he spits on her face. His vulgarity is complete. But his anger also makes you think that he’s truly the victim. Feldstrom is surely an uncivilized, undereducated person for losing his cool like that, but … it could be you — you may have said something similar on social media, in response to some monster doing something flagrantly dehumanizing… Again, you are not sure whether Marla is the good guy or bad guy, and therefore you are not sure if Feldstrom’s outburst is justified.

And here comes the problematic part. Marla takes off her sunglasses and looks ferociously into Feldstrom’s eyes: “Does it sting more because I’m a woman? That you got so soundly beaten in there by someone with a vagina? Having a penis doesn’t automatically make you more scary to me, just the opposite. You may be a man, but if you ever threaten, touch or spit on me again… I will grab your dick and balls and I will rip them clean off, you understand? I’ll tell your mom you send your best.”

This is a calculated move to make the female audience feel so good, no? You had been belittled at least once, so indelibly, just because you are a girl/woman, and this is exactly what you wanted to say to the offender had you had the guts (which you didn’t). So hearing Marla say that so collectedly just makes you feel wonderful. If you feel that way, that’s due to something called mirror neurons, “brain cells that fire not only when we perform an action but when we observe someone else perform the same action.” 看节目主持人在享受美食的时候，自己也馋了，即使你的理性告诉你那不是真正的食物，而是像素构成的幻影。

But how are men reacting to the scene? Could be something totally different. It could frighten the male audience. When you feel threatened and stressed out, you also become more focused. Scientists have long discovered that even when we don’t face a direct physical threat, as long as we begin to imagine those threats, we get stressed out, and thus more focused. You can identify with Feldstrom and feel intimidated by Marla. Or you can feel frightened for Marla in anticipation of Feldstrom’s fightback.

Or, it can be that the masculine part of you feels threatened, and the feminine part of you feels elated. If you can simultaneously feel these two things, oh boy, you are getting the optimal experience. Cortisol is the attention hormone, and oxytocin the bonding hormone. Cortisol combined with oxytocin can give you the experience of transportation (“transport” in the sense of being overwhelmed “with a strong emotion, especially joy”).

The second time watching this scene, though, I just rolled my eyes at Marla, because in the next eighteen minutes, the good-guy-bad-guy suspense is completely resolved. The next eighteen minutes show you how Marla capitalizes on the loopholes in the medical and legal system, how she takes advantage of the human weakness of automatically following orders and trusting authority figures, how she preys on those with insufficient legal resources, and what she claims as “care” is actually just grift.

As in Gone Girl, Pike once again plays the female villain character in I Care A Lot. Only this time, her character Marla is a lesbian, which frees her from the obligation of playing along with the modern, enlightened men’s fantasy about modern, enlightened women. Marla can express her contempt for men explicitly, whereas in Gone Girl the Cool Girl Amy has to convey her contempt through elaborate schemes.

It is really worth the while to revisit the famed Cool Girl passage in Gone Girl, for those too young to have watched or heard of the film:

That night at the Brooklyn party, I was playing the girl who was in style, the girl a man like Nick wants: the Cool Girl. Men always say that as the defining compliment, don’t they? She’s a cool girl. Being the Cool Girl means I am a hot, brilliant, funny woman who adores football, poker, dirty jokes, and burping, who plays video games, drinks cheap beer, loves threesomes and anal sex, and jams hot dogs and hamburgers into her mouth like she’s hosting the world’s biggest culinary gang bang while somehow maintaining a size 2, because Cool Girls are above all hot. Hot and understanding. Cool Girls never get angry; they only smile in a chagrined, loving manner and let their men do whatever they want. Go ahead, shit on me, I don’t mind, I’m the Cool Girl. Men actually think this girl exists. Maybe they’re fooled because so many women are willing to pretend to be this girl...Oh, and if you’re not a Cool Girl, I beg you not to believe that your man doesn’t want the Cool Girl. It may be a slightly different version—maybe he’s vegetarian, so Cool Girl loves seitan and is great with dogs; or maybe he’s a hipster artist, so Cool Girl is a tattooed, bespectacled nerd who loves comics. There are variations to the window dressing, but believe me, he wants Cool Girl, who is basically the girl who likes every f***ing thing he likes and doesn’t ever complain. (How do you know you’re not Cool Girl? Because he says things like “I like strong women.” If he says that to you, he will at some point f*** someone else. Because “I like strong women” is code for “I hate strong women.”

Gone Girl is invested in the plight of contemporary women, while I Care A Lot is not — the pseudo-feminist things Marla says only bring cheap gratification. Cool Girl Amy’s transgression consists of framing men for stalking, rape, and murder, of putting men to social death and behind bars. But Marla’s seeming transgression of heteronormative sexuality is only a masquerade for her real transgression: her subscription to a macho capitalist logic.

Let me quickly sum up the rest of I Care A Lot. Marla collides with a doctor to induce signs of dementia in a rich old lady. Then Marla becomes the legal guardian of that rich old lady, Jennifer Peterson. But Jennifer turns out to be the mother of a super rich and powerful Russian man, Roman, whose business includes human trafficking. Roman kills the doctor and makes it look like suicide, in an attempt to frighten Marla into forfeiting her guardianship on his mother. Marla remains undaunted. So Roman tries to kill Marla, and fails; he tries to kill Marla’s girlfriend Fran, and also fails. The two failed attempts are irritating, I know, because they just make the story implausible. And it gets more irritating. Set on go big or go home, Marla gets back at Roman, and succeeds: she miraculously becomes Roman’s legal guardian, and puts a $10 million price tag on Roman’s freedom.

Here comes another twist. Roman proposes an alternative to the $10 million: “Instead of me giving you $10 million… we become partners, go into business together. … I hate you… but, oh, the money we could make. You’re a rare person, Marla. Your determination is… Frankly, it’s scary. But this guardianship grift, it’s ripe, but right now it’s small potatoes. I propose we create a monster… a countrywide guardianship corporation, with you as CEO and co-owner. Use my money, use your… skills. Destroy the competition. Take control of the entire market.”

Yes, the two persons that for the most part of the movie try to kill each other become business partners at the end! Two absolutely depraved capitalists joining forces! 没有永远的敌人，不要跟钱过不去 — 这是整部电影的底层逻辑。The director/scriptwriter must have this twist, which veers the theme of the movie toward the triumph of capitalism, to sustain audience engagement and achieve its own capitalist, commercial success. Obscene!

And brace yourself for the most f**ked-up part of the movie. Marla accepts the partnership and achieves CEO of a publicly traded company level of success at the age of 39. She just finishes a TV interview and she’s walking to her car. Feldstrom walks up to her and fires gunshot at her heart. Feldstrom never gets to see his mom and his mom just died alone in the care facility. So he shoots Marla in the heart. This time, Marla completely fails to fire back with words. It is implied that she is killed on the spot.

I was screaming (in my head) at this point. A f**king greedy, immoral capitalist, empowered by another wealthy, immoral capitalist, unstopped by the court and the government, or rather, aided by the incompetent people in the legal system and corrupted doctors, only to be killed by an incel kind of guy? The only effective solution to ending injustice and capitalist avarice is pure gun violence in the most American style? As the closing credits music begins, I was yelling in my head: NO! That CAN’T be how the story ends! Movies are supposed to satisfy viewers’ deepest fantasies, and this one does not satisfy my fantasy that justice can be restored through nonviolent, rational means, through legal measures, and through investigative journalism. After all that shit that happened in 2022, after all those people that disappeared, this is the last movie I needed. I wanted movies to represent messy reality, not this kind of bullshit fairytale. I was so angry that I even began to suspect the director/scriptwriter is some sort of closeted Republican incel funded by far-right groups. I realized I needed Spotlight kind of movies.

After watching the movie, I spent an hour watching videos about Elizabeth Holmes.