高智商燒腦科幻片《超腦48小時》

High-concept science-fiction movies tend to go in two different directions. They can be either as campy as John Woo’s Face/Off (1997) or as thought-provoking as Christopher Nolan’s Inception (2010).

高智商科幻電影通常有兩種截然不同的路數。它們要麼像吳宇森導演的《變臉》（1997年）一樣華麗浮誇，要麼像克里斯托弗•諾蘭的《盜夢空間》（2010）那樣引人深思。

The new movie Criminal, however, doesn’t seem to know which path to take. At once serious and silly, the film hinges on one of the most beloved tropes of the genre: Our hero wakes up to find his head filled with memories that aren’t his own, and he has to fight to make sense of them before time runs out.

不過新片《超腦48小時》似乎兩條路都不沾邊。電影乍一看略顯拘謹和笨拙，它以大衆最喜聞樂見的電影模式展開：我們的英雄醒來發現自己的腦袋裏裝滿了不屬於自己的記憶，他必須爭分奪秒在規定時間內搞清真相。

The story begins when CIA agent Bill Pope (Ryan Reynolds) is killed during a top-secret mission. Unable to resuscitate him, CIA scientists transfer his memories into Jerico (Kevin Costner), a ruthless criminal.

故事開始，中央情報局特工比爾•波普（瑞恩•雷諾茲飾）在一次絕密行動中意外身亡。中情局科學家未能將他救活，於是將他的記憶植入了一位極度暴戾的罪犯傑里科（凱文•科斯特納飾）身上。

Israeli director Ariel Vromen uses this well-worn plot to explore how malleable human identity might be. “Science is kind of bringing us along already and suggesting deleting bad memories,” Vromen told the US entertainment site Den of Geek. He explores some of the ethical implications of altering memories through Jerico and his adventures.

以色列導演艾瑞歐•弗朗曼利用這種老舊的情節來探索人類認同到底有多強的可塑性。弗朗曼告訴美國娛樂網站Den of Geek ：“科學已經發展到一定程度，它甚至可以抹去我們糟糕的回憶”。他還在片中探索了交換傑里科的記憶和人生帶來的一些倫理影響。

Jerico is a prisoner who suffers from “frontal lobe syndrome” due to a childhood brain injury. In other words, he neither has emotions nor empathy. But shortly after Pope’s memories are implanted into his brain, Jerico starts to adopt Pope’s characteristics.

因爲童年時遭遇過腦損傷，罪犯傑里科患有“額葉綜合徵”。換言之，他是一個沒有情感和同理心的人。但當被植入波普的記憶後不久，傑里科開始接受波普的人格。

Jerico glimpses flashes of the past that hold clues to what happened during Pope’s classified mission. But the most overwhelming sensation Jericho experiences is a sudden rush of love and responsibility.

傑里科瞥見了過去的剪影，發現了波普執行絕密任務時的線索。但傑里科體驗到的最難以抗拒的情感還是如潮水涌來愛意和責任感。

It’s here that the outlandish sci-fi plot gives way to domestic melodrama. Jericho’s new memories lead him to the doorstep of Pope’s grieving widow (Gal Gadot). It’s little surprise that Jerico finds renewed purpose in the warmth of hearth and home, but, as Chicago Tribune film critic Katie Walsh points out, Vromen uses these scenes to raise questions about the role of redemption in today’s criminal justice system.

也正是在這一刻，離奇的科幻情節讓路於俗套劇情。傑里科的新記憶把他帶到了波普悲痛欲絕的遺孀（蓋爾•加朵飾）的門前。我們絲毫也不意外，傑里科在溫馨舒適的家庭生活中找到了新的目標，不過正如《芝加哥論壇報》電影評論家凱蒂•沃爾什指出的，弗朗曼通過這些場景引起大衆思考救贖在當今刑事司法體系中的角色。

“The idea that someone else’s memories might make an unrepentant killer feel something real for the first time ends up being a rather poignant concept,” Walsh wrote. “Jerico, written off and imprisoned by society, not only gets a purpose in his life, but he gets to understand the way that other, normal people understand the world.”

沃爾什寫道：“別人的記憶可能會讓一個毫無悔意的殺人犯第一次體驗到真實的世界，這最終會是一個切中要害的概念。遭到社會清算和逮捕的傑里科不僅找到了自己的人生目標，更是理解了其他正常人眼中的世界。”

With its mad-scientist plot, the film may ultimately be too cornball for some moviegoers – and that’s okay. Its unapologetically sincere tone makes Criminal a refreshing departure from the snark and sarcasm that have come to dominate the summer movie season. With weighty performances and a strong plot, Criminal has set the bar high for this season’s blockbusters.

對一些常看電影的觀衆來說瘋狂科學家的劇情可能就是陳詞濫調，不過這無所謂。《超腦48小時》不容置辯的真誠口吻讓人耳目一新，也讓這部電影和霸佔暑期檔的那些冷言嘲諷分道揚鑣。《超腦48小時》的重量級表演和強大情節提高了評價本季度其他大片的標準。