《不得鳥小姐》（Lady Bird，dir: Greta Gerwig，2017）

　　我是喜歡這部戲、享受看這部戲的，覺得拍得清新可喜，演出也很精彩，喜歡愛絲露娜（Saoirse Ronan），也希望「鳥姐媽」（Laurie Metcalf）能贏奧斯卡最佳女配角多於「冰女媽」（Allison Janney）。不過略感可惜的是，這個劇本始終寫得太「輕盈」，少女的成長雖然有風有浪，其實無驚無險就匆匆過去，一度失去的友情抱一抱就回來了、尷尬的兩段初戀一下車就拋在身後了、想讀的大學不見怎麼苦讀就考進了，雖說我們成長的過程很可能都是這樣的，不見得要經歷大哭大鬧才叫深刻，但甜酸苦辣都用上同一力度去寫，就難以感受到各事件對她思想性情的影響，結果末尾還要刻意寫一場進醫院、入教堂的戲，將「成人了」的洗禮儀式化，對這位頗具才華的編劇來說，就稍嫌不夠瀟灑高明。編導姬達嘉域自言想拍的少女版的《四百擊》（The 400 Blows，1959）和《我們都是這樣長大的》（Boyhood，2014），她確實是做到了，故事中也有許多本人少女時代在悶城的親身見聞（她否認自己的真實人生像「不得鳥小姐」），然而她相對喜劇的處理、明快的節奏（以剪接帶動而非走位調度），走的是更加大眾的路線，而在更加黑色幽默的另一頭，不要忘記還有鬼馬怪誕的《黐孖妹》（Ghost World，2001），《不得鳥小姐》夾在其間，在深度上、破格上就有點處於兩難狀態了。

       當然，這故事原初寫了 350 頁劇本，可拍成 6 小時長片，現在濃縮成一個半小時，觀眾可不能隨便說成是「妥協」，反而更應該嘉許；這不代表影片是甚麼傑作，而是我們能看到獨立創作人如何受惠於傳統工業，展現了在大製作中如魚得水的能力，犧牲了部分靈光，卻更能平衡個人與商業的可能矛盾，正如《紐約客》首席影評人（Richard Brody）在〈Why Bother Having Separate Oscars for Best Picture and Best Director?〉一文提到的︰“Gerwig, making her first feature as sole writer and director, worked nearly like a Hollywood filmmaker. She worked within an existing production structure, infusing it with her own script and cast, her own ideas and experiences and emotions, but yielding to its built-in limits regarding the practical side of things, and I think that her talents as a director were somewhat inhibited as a result. In some sense, however, Gerwig’s achievement is all the more remarkable: she managed to make a personal film while wrestling with the large organization of a near-Hollywood shoot, complete with stars (and the complications that come with them), and to make a period piece, complete with costumes and sets, on that budget, and to make it deftly, with a unity of tone, as well as including several scenes that are among the most effective, most affecting, of any film this year. I’m a fan of “Lady Bird”; it’s certainly one of the year’s best movies, but its virtues are, in significant measure, classical: it’s a triumph of production, of a strong system helping a filmmaker to contour personal substance into a popular form.＂