Henry: Looks smaller. When did he complete it?
Alex: You weren t born yet and I was 8.
Henry: Corbusier meets Frank Lloyd Wright.
Alex: You know dad played cards with both of them, sharing a joint1.
Henry: Yeah, well...
Alex: Can t swim. There should be a stairway down to the water, a porch, a deck. Here you re in a... in a box. A glass box with a view to everything that s around you, but you can t touch it. No interconnection between you and what you re looking at.
Henry: I don t know. You know, he s got this big maple2 growing right in the middle of the house.
Alex: Containment3. Containment and control. This house is about ownership, not connection. I mean, it s beautiful. Seductive, even. But it s incomplete. It was all about him. Dad knew how to build a house, not a home. But you know. I think he wants us to do what he couldn t. But admitting that would mean admitting that he came up short in some way; that he could do more. And that tortures him.
Henry: You remember being here with mom?
Alex: I remember she tried to make it work here... with us... with him.
Henry: Hey, what about Visionary Vanguard?
Alex: What about it?
Henry: Come on. You can t convince me you re gonna be happy building saltboxes for tourists. Nobody s gonna admire you for that.
Alex: Admire me for that?
Henry: Yeah, Visionary Vanguard. That s your idea.
Alex: I can t. But you can keep the name.
Henry: No, come on. It s gonna be you and me.
Alex: Henry, I m sorry I can t. I just...
Henry: What?
Alex: I ve got other plans.
Henry: You have a girlfriend?
Alex: No... no.
Henry: What s that? You hesitated.
Alex: No, I didn t hesitate. Come on, man. I don t have any time for that.
Henry: What does time have to do with it?
Alex: Oh, you re gonna think I m crazy.
妙语佳句,活学活用
1. joint
这是一个我们都很熟悉的单词,表示“结合点,关节”等等。但是在这里如果我们按照这些意思去理解,就没办法理解这个句子的意思以及它和上面一句话的逻辑关系。上一句台词是:你知道的,老爸过去在这里和他们俩一起打过牌,如果joint取它的常用意思,“共享相关联的东西”好像说不过去。这里的joint表示一个特殊的意思:“大麻” 或者“含大麻的香烟”,表示他们曾在一起“打牌,抽大麻”。
2. seductive 诱人的
我们在电影里可以学到一些教科书上不太容易出现的单词,比如这一个。其实这个词可以表示非常好的意思,当然也可以是贬义的,尤其是在形容女人的容貌时。我们来看一些例子:
1) Her figure was slighter and therefore more seductive than Natalie.
她的身段比较苗条,因此比娜塔丽更加诱人。
2) She shouldn t wear her rather seductive purple dress for the journey.
她不应该穿这件相当诱惑人的紫衣服去。
3) This company gives us a seductive offer on engineering the merger4 with us.
这家公司在计划跟我们的合并时给我们提出了有诱惑力的条件。
3. come up
这是一个有很多意思的短语,在口语中很常用,它的意思有:
1) 走近,靠近
He came up to me and said: "Come on, John!"
2) 发生,出现
I was late-something came up at home.
3) 讨论
This subject came up at a news conference in Beijing today.
4) 成为,出现
The silk dress came up beautiful. 这件丝绸衣服显得很漂亮。
在电影里,come up的意思和我们上面提到的四种好像都不太一样,但是又有相似的地方。Come 和short连用,通常是表示“手头紧,缺钱”。但是在这里Alex是说他们的父亲在做父亲和丈夫方面“有欠缺,不合格”。