Thedayaftertomorrow电影《后天》英文影评

后天The Day After Tomorrow 英文影评

It is such a relief to hear the music swell up at the end of a Roland Emmerich movie, itsrestorative power giving us new hope. Billions of people may have died, but at least themajor characters have survived. Los Angeles was wiped out by flying saucers in Emmerich's"Independence Day," New York was assaulted in his "Godzilla," and now, in "The Day AfterTomorrow," Emmerich outdoes himself:

Los Angeles is leveled by multiple tornados, New Yorkis buried under ice and snow, the United Kingdom is flash-frozen, and lots of the NorthernHemisphere is wiped out for good measure. Thank god that Jack, Sam, Laura, Jason and Dr.Lucy Hall survive, along with Dr. Hall's little cancer patient.

So, yes, the movie is profoundly silly. What surprised me is that it's also very scary.The special effects are on such an awesome scale that the movie works despite its cornballplotting. When tornados rip apart Los Angeles (not sparing the Hollywood sign), when a wallof water roars into New York, when a Russian tanker floats down a Manhattan street, whensnow buries skyscrapers, when the crew of a space station can see nothing but violent stormsystems -- well, you pay attention.

No doubt some readers are already angry with me for revealing that Jack, Sam, Laura,Jason, Dr. Lucy Hall and the little cancer patient survive. Have I given away the plot?

This plot gives itself away. When cataclysmic events shred uncounted lives but the moviezeroes in on only a few people, of course they survive, although some supporting charactersmay have to be sacrificed. What's amusing in movies like "The Day After Tomorrow" is theway the screenplay veers from the annihilation of subcontinents to whether Sam should tellLaura he loves her.

"sensational claims."

Before long, however, it is snowing in India, and hailstones the side of softballs areripping into Tokyo. Birds, which are always wise in matters of global disaster, fly southdouble-time. Turbulence tears airplanes from the sky. The president (Perry

King) learns theFAA wants to ground all flights and asks the vice president, "What do

you think we shoulddo?"

Meanwhile, young Sam Hall (Jake Gyllenhaal) goes to New York with an academic decathlonteam, which includes Laura (Emmy Rossum of "Mystic River") and Brian (Arjay Smith). They'restranded there. Ominous portents abound and Jack finally gets his message through to theadministration ("This time," says a friend within the White House, "it will be different.You've got to brief the president directly.")

Jack draws a slash across a map of the United States, and writes off everybody north ofit. He issues a warning that super-cooled air will kill anybody exposed to it, advises

those in its path to stay inside, and then ... well, then he sets off to walk from

Washington to New York to get to his son. Two of his buddies, also veterans of Arctic

We are wondering:

(a) why walk to New York when his expertise is desperately need to save millions?(b) won't his son be either dead or alive whether or not he makes the trek? And——(c) how quickly can you walk from Washington to New York over ice sheets and through ahowling blizzard? As nearly as I can calculate, this movie believes it can be done in twonights and most of three days. Oh, I forgot; they drive part of the way, on highways thatare gridlocked and buried in snow, except for where they're driving. How they get gas isnot discussed in any detail.

As for the answer to (a), anyone familiar with the formula will know it is because heFeels Guilty About Neglecting His Son by spending all that time being a paleoclimatologist.It took him a lot of that time just to spell it. So, OK, the human subplots are nonse --all except for the quiet scenes anchored by Ian Holm, as a sad, wise Scottish

meteorologist. Just like Peter O'Toole in "Troy," Holm proves that a gifted British-trainedactor can walk into almost any scene and make it seem like it means something.

Quaid and Gyllenhaal and the small band of New York survivors do what can be done withimpossible dialogue in an unlikely situation. And Dr. Lucy Hall (Sela Ward),