VOA标准英语2010年-Woody Allen Returns With Darker Look a

Helena, played by Gemma Jones, seeks out a psychic¹ fortuneteller to help her understand why Anthony Hopkins as Alfie, her husband of more than 40 years, has left her to take up with a much younger, woman named Charmaine.

Sally is married to Roy, who wrote a hit novel, but has been unable to repeat the success. Their relationship grows tenser by the week and meeting sexy Charmaine doesn't help.

Perhaps Roy is living a bit vicariously through Alfie's romance; struggling to write, he finds himself staring out the window at the pretty young woman in the flat across the way.

As their stories intersect in the London neighborhood where he set the film, writer-director Woody Allen says the characters confront issues he has explored before in more serious films like 1978's "Interiors."

"This film is an attempt to deal with the same subject, but to deal with it in a more comic way. The subject matter is still the inability of people to relate to one another, people needing some kind of certainty in life, people deluding² themselves into some sense that there is some purpose to life or that there is some extra meaning to life when, in fact, it's a meaningless experience ...and yet in the end even faith in anything at all is better than no faith at all," he said.

Josh Brolin co-stars as unsuccessful writer Roy who seeks inspiration in the arms of a woman who is not his wife. "It is not the most redeeming³ character out there. When I watch it I just want to slap him a lot. You know, 'the grass is greener on the other side' and he is constantly looking 'over there' for notoriety and fame and all of that," he said.

Allen says Roy will seem familiar to fans of his movies. "That's a typical kind of character that I would write: someone who fancies himself an artist and struggles with it and doesn't live up to his promise. I feel that's the autobiographical strain in the movie. I also feel it is autobiographical with Anthony Hopkins. I'm older, probably close to his age, and these problems of a life more in the past than in the future torment⁴ me all of the time. That is a problem that recurs⁵ in all of my movies ...or many of them ...since I got older," he said.

Allen turns 75 this year (December 1), making him two years older than co-star Hopkins. "We have all gone through our mid-life crises. I'm just glad I don't have to do that again, but I understand poor Alfie. He is just caught up in this nightmare, but he makes a big mistake and then everything is taken from him: a marriage is destroyed, his wife is very upset by it. That happens. That's life. People do that and men are dogs. I have to say it: we are a rum lot. Never trust a man," he said.

But writer-director Allen trusts the audience to accept his somewhat unorthodox decision to end the film by not ending its multiple stories. "I feel that life, unlike Hollywood movies, does not tie up all the loose ends. Life is unresolved, confusing, bewildering, puzzling, ambiguous ...and that you don't really know what's going to happen. The future is uncertain for everybody, so that is how I had seen the end of the picture. I didn't want everybody to neatly⁶ wrap up his or her story with a nice "MGM" ending. I wanted the people to wander around in agonizing⁷ limbo⁸ ...like in real life, really," he said.

British screen veteran Pauline Collins plays fortuneteller Cristal. "You Will Meet A Tall, Dark Stranger" also features Naomi Watts⁹ as Sally. Antonio Banderas plays her unbearably¹⁰ handsome boss. Freida Pinto is Dia, the object of her husband Roy's desire; and Lucy Punch is her dad's flame Charmaine

1 psychic   

n.对超自然力敏感的人；adj.有超自然力的

参考例句：

• Some people are said to have psychic powers.据说有些人有通灵的能力。
• She claims to be psychic and to be able to foretell the future.她自称有特异功能，能预知未来。

2 deluding   

v.欺骗，哄骗( delude的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• They used Teresa's desolation as another proof that believers are deluding themselves. 他们用德肋撒嬷嬷的孤寂再一次论证信徒们是在蒙蔽自己。 来自互联网
• There is, for instance, a self-deluding interpretation of the contemporary world situation. 比如说有一些对当代世界时局自我欺骗式的阐释。 来自互联网

3 redeeming   

补偿的，弥补的

参考例句：

• I found him thoroughly unpleasant, with no redeeming qualities whatsoever. 我觉得他一点也不讨人喜欢，没有任何可取之处。
• The sole redeeming feature of this job is the salary. 这份工作唯其薪水尚可弥补一切之不足。

4 torment   

n.折磨；令人痛苦的东西(人)；vt.折磨；纠缠

参考例句：

• He has never suffered the torment of rejection.他从未经受过遭人拒绝的痛苦。
• Now nothing aggravates me more than when people torment each other.没有什么东西比人们的互相折磨更使我愤怒。

5 recurs   

再发生，复发( recur的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• This theme recurs several times throughout the book. 这一主题在整部书里出现了好几次。
• Leap year recurs every four years. 每四年闰年一次。

6 neatly   

adv.整洁地，干净地，灵巧地，熟练地

参考例句：

• Sailors know how to wind up a long rope neatly.水手们知道怎样把一条大绳利落地缠好。
• The child's dress is neatly gathered at the neck.那孩子的衣服在领口处打着整齐的皱褶。

7 agonizing   

adj.痛苦难忍的；使人苦恼的v.使极度痛苦；折磨(agonize的ing形式)

参考例句：

• I spent days agonizing over whether to take the job or not. 我用了好些天苦苦思考是否接受这个工作。
• his father's agonizing death 他父亲极度痛苦的死

8 limbo   

n.地狱的边缘；监狱

参考例句：

• His life seemed stuck in limbo and he could not go forward and he could not go back.他的生活好像陷入了不知所措的境地，进退两难。
• I didn't know whether my family was alive or dead.I felt as if I was in limbo.我不知道家人是生是死，感觉自己茫然无措。

9 watts   

（电力计量单位）瓦，瓦特( watt的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• My lamp uses 60 watts; my toaster uses 600 watts. 我的灯用60瓦，我的烤面包器用600瓦。
• My lamp uses 40 watts. 我的灯40瓦。

10 unbearably   

adv.不能忍受地，无法容忍地；慌

参考例句：

• It was unbearably hot in the car. 汽车里热得难以忍受。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• She found it unbearably painful to speak. 她发现开口说话痛苦得令人难以承受。 来自《简明英汉词典》