VOA标准英语2012--Quirky Comedy Explores NY Dating Scene

 

Quirky Comedy Explores NY Dating Scene

Gerwig portrays¹ Lola, who at almost 30-years-old, is finally getting to wear a wedding dress. She's planning to marry her fiancé Luke, an artist.

But Lola is so consumed by her doctoral thesis and the wedding plans, that she misses major signals from Luke. When they break up, her carefully-planned future comes tumbling down. Lola, guided by her best friend Alice, has to find her way back into the dating scene.

The droll² comedy was co-written and directed by Daryl Wein.

"As a male writer, I try to put myself in the shoes of a woman and, obviously, I have a lot of female friends, and I can pick up on a lot of female experience, but we were trying to write what we thought was a necessary portrait of a single woman," Wein says. "We felt like there were all these broadly-drawn romantic comedies like "Sex and the City," "Bridget Jones's Diary" and now "Bridesmaids." They're all funny and glamorous³, but they didn't feel as authentic⁴ and specific to our reality."

Zoe Lister-Jones, who co-wrote the script, also co-stars as Lola's brutally⁵ frank best friend, Alice. "The trick is to always make that person grounded, so that was my challenge. But she is obviously the comic foil, so that's a really fun part to play."

As Lola, Gerwig gets to put a unique twist on the romantic comedy genre⁶.

"It is not a traditional rom-com, but if you tried to put it within that structure, then the person she is always meant to end up with is herself. And then she gets that ending and she falls in love with herself," Gerwig says. "As soon as she gives herself enough time to sit down and breathe, she realizes she is actually okay…that she doesn't actually have to fill any hole in her life that she was so sure was there before.

Gerwig also stars in the new Woody Allen comedy "To Rome With Love."

"Lola Versus⁷" features Joel Kinnaman as the reluctant fiancé. Debra Winger and Bill Pullman play Lola's parents, and Hamish Linklater is her platonic⁸ friend since high school. The movie was filmed on location in New York.

1 portrays   

v.画像( portray的第三人称单数 )；描述；描绘；描画

参考例句：

• The museum collection vividly portrays the heritage of 200 years of canals. 博物馆的藏品让运河200 年的历史再现眼前。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The film portrays Gandhi as a kind of superman. 这部电影把甘地描绘成一个超人。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 droll   

adj.古怪的，好笑的

参考例句：

• The band have a droll sense of humour.这个乐队有一种滑稽古怪的幽默感。
• He looked at her with a droll sort of awakening.他用一种古怪的如梦方醒的神情看着她.

3 glamorous   

adj.富有魅力的；美丽动人的；令人向往的

参考例句：

• The south coast is less glamorous but full of clean and attractive hotels.南海岸魅力稍逊，但却有很多干净漂亮的宾馆。
• It is hard work and not a glamorous job as portrayed by the media.这是份苦差，并非像媒体描绘的那般令人向往。

4 authentic   

a.真的，真正的；可靠的，可信的，有根据的

参考例句：

• This is an authentic news report. We can depend on it. 这是篇可靠的新闻报道, 我们相信它。
• Autumn is also the authentic season of renewal. 秋天才是真正的除旧布新的季节。

5 brutally   

adv.残忍地，野蛮地，冷酷无情地

参考例句：

• The uprising was brutally put down.起义被残酷地镇压下去了。
• A pro-democracy uprising was brutally suppressed.一场争取民主的起义被残酷镇压了。

6 genre   

n.(文学、艺术等的)类型，体裁，风格

参考例句：

• My favorite music genre is blues.我最喜欢的音乐种类是布鲁斯音乐。
• Superficially,this Shakespeare's work seems to fit into the same genre.从表面上看， 莎士比亚的这个剧本似乎属于同一类型。

7 versus   

prep.以…为对手，对；与…相比之下

参考例句：

• The big match tonight is England versus Spain.今晚的大赛是英格兰对西班牙。
• The most exciting game was Harvard versus Yale.最富紧张刺激的球赛是哈佛队对耶鲁队。

8 platonic   

adj.精神的；柏拉图（哲学）的

参考例句：

• Their friendship is based on platonic love.他们的友情是基于柏拉图式的爱情。
• Can Platonic love really exist in real life?柏拉图式的爱情，在现实世界里到底可能吗？