(Text/Yang Shiyang)
Kate Winslet-the rose in "Titanic"-has already starred in the film as Grandma. This is perhaps the most surprised first reaction of many viewers when watching "East City Nightmare". Just like Kate Winslet’s true face of no Fendai in the play, the play "East City Nightmare" is also dedicated to showing people the unadorned reality of American towns.
In this story, Kate Winslet plays Mel, a local police detective who is trusted by the residents, but the small town is an acquaintance society, and there are no major incidents. It is all complaints from the elderly to the neighbors or drunk ghosts, poisonous insects that everyone knows. Except for a long-unsolved missing girl case, this place is calm and boring. Like all crime dramas, peace is used to break it. This time it was the death of a single underage mother who broke the peace. After she was shot, she threw her body in the forest. Mel began the investigation. On the one hand, he had to face the pressure brought by the unsolved old case and the new case. On the other hand, he had to face the embarrassment of all his acquaintances, relatives and friends falling into suspicion.
Whether it is the setting of the atmosphere or the facts of the case, "East City Nightmare" is not novel, and this type of crime story can no longer be played with any tricks. To a certain extent, this type is more "duty" than who is. , Who is more "solid". Objectively speaking, considering this dimension, "East City Mel" is not excellent. If it weren't for Kate Winslet's extremely relaxed and true acting blessings, it might not have the current score and attention. Any crime drama fan can see too many shadows of the previous work in this story, the suspicious atmosphere of acquaintances in "Small Town", the tension between family friendship and solving the crime, everyone who was turned out by the crime in "Murder" The details are unclean, the heroine's lingering heart demon in "Sharp Weapon"... All of this appears after being slightly deformed in "East City Nightmare", but it is similar to those meticulously crafted crimes. Compared with the works, this story seems to be closer to the low-level community versions of "Lie and Bane" and "Bane." That is to say, it is more inclined to exhibit the environment created by crimes than the focus on crimes. This kind of exhibition cannot be said to be intricate or untrue, but it has always stayed on a typified, template-like general description, and it does not particularly deeply dissect everyone.
Mel’s heart demon was her son who was addicted to drugs and eventually committed suicide. As a grandmother, she helped raise the children left by this son. She continued to live in that old house with her mother, daughter, and grandson. The son hanged himself. The attic was closed, her ex-husband was about to remarry, but bought a new house opposite her house. Family and friends were obviously more willing to be close to her ex-husband. Meyer seemed indifferent all day long, but also depressed, only to be cautious in front of the psychologist. To confide a little bit, she is reluctant to show her inner vision to anyone, including her daughter and mother. The mode of getting along with them is just angering and disgusting each other but helping each other, saying hard things and doing soft things. Xin, she wears armor most of the time and doesn't want to be seen as fragile, but the more she does this, the more fragile she becomes. Therefore, when she met the past writer who came to teach here, a unique kind of tenderness and helplessness appeared in their relationship. She showed a trace of remaining honey, and he gave her just the right kind of tenderness. An initiative without oppressiveness, a relaxation that does not require commitment. This is one of the few moments in her life where she reveals herself to others. She can't do that in front of her family, nor can she do that with the young partner who admires herself and finally falls in love with herself.
From this perspective, Mel went deep into the crime, solved the crime, and walked out of the clues of the crime is actually a process of self-healing. She accidentally broke through a case she hadn’t uncovered, and then she regained her understanding of the death before her. Everyone around you can see the dark side behind those good people, see the misunderstandings of the "wicked people", "bad people" and "weirds", and see that the shadows that they have been avoiding are always floating in front of them, and there is no way to avoid them. When the case was cracked and everything came to light, she began to walk up to the attic at home and finally dared to face the deepest vortex in her heart.
Objectively speaking, this kind of writing is very correct, but it is too correct. The counterpoint relationship between the inner healing and the external investigation is too neat and too obvious. Just like fearing that the audience will not be able to see it, I have been trying to summarize the central idea outside the main idea of the paragraph. . This small town is nothing more than an enlarged version of the secret room. For such a setting, the most important thing is to fully explain everyone's suspicions, so that everyone can show a completely different face from daily life, even more cruel. Everyone should be torn and ruined by this suspicion, but in "East City Nightmare", there are too many tool-man roles that pass by in a flash, such as the writer who entered Mel’s life and eventually left. What kind of function? Mel's ex-husband fell into suspicion inexplicably and was immediately cleared up. Is this rhythm a bit too perfunctory? Not to mention the priest, who has already become a scapegoat for the clichés in such stories, and can hardly deceive the audience. I have to say that there are too many old stalks and chicken soup in this story, but they are only obscured by the wonderful acting and suspenseful atmosphere.
Since there are so many crime dramas of this kind, the requirements for shaping each suspect will inevitably be elevated. They need to be functional and decorative. We can compare "Murder" with "East City Nightmare". Everyone suspected in the story is swallowed by fate, no matter the teacher who once married his student or the seemingly upright politician, everyone Can't retreat all over. But in "East City Nightmare", many people flashed a shadow of suspicion, and then quickly dismissed the relationship with the case, as if to tell everyone that I am not the murderer, and you all know it, but I must pretend to be a little suspicious and create A bit of twists and turns.
The old case in "East City Nightmare" is easily reminiscent of the twisted story in the first season of "True Detective", but it lacks the sense of evil that goes deep into the bones of the bone, and the new case is very much like the first season of "Murder" The girl was found in the trunk of the car, but neither the process nor the ending was too embarrassing and sighing. "East City Nightmare" can be regarded as a good crime drama. This story obviously wants to show a kind of de-dramatic, close to real life crime, writing about the implosive killing intent buried in the daily trivialities of life, it is partially completed, but in many cases, it is interspersed with some Unnecessary gags and humor that dilutes the sense of killing. It is really similar to the previous "Bane" which also came from HBO-the blessing of big-name actors and the suspenseful setting, but in the end people always feel that a lot of content has not been really developed. I have to say that this is one Kind of regret.
(This article was first published in the Beijing Youth Daily column)
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