Carla is a long-time unappreciated secretary of a property development company. Loyal and hardworking, first to arrive and last to leave, she is ignored, frustrated, and rejected. Carla is beginning to chafe at the limitations of her career and is looking to move up. But as a 35-year-old woman with a hearing deficiency, she is not sure how to climb out of her humdrum life, though she is confident in her own abilities.
Swamped with work, Carla’s boss hires an assistant for her. Into her life comes Paul Angeli, a 25-year-old new trainee intern who is completely unskilled to this architecture firm. But Carla covers for him when the need arisesbecause of his other qualities--he’s a thief, fresh out of jail, and very good-looking. As an ex-con, Paul is trying to get his life back on track. Now it’s a case of good meeting bad.
Hiring an assistant appears to be a way for Carla to find someone in her life. Their both being rejected rejected by the society reunites them progressively. To Carla, her subordinate Paul is a secret weapon with skills (lock-picking, physical initimidation) that she needs. Likewise, Carla becomes Paul’s secret weapon as her ability to read on lips reveals itself to be very useful for him......and opens up a new world of possibilities to his plotting, criminal ways. She will increasingly evolve, far from what she was at first.
Once Carla and Paul start to help each other, the tension between them only helps them along. Their unpredictable actions toward the film prevent it from being a simple ”etude de moeurs”. It’s actually a surprisingly entertaining film with a breathtaking suspense.
SUR MES LEVRES是“Read My Lips”的意思，但這部片卻沒有絲毫浪漫情節，反倒是怵目驚心地表露現實。女主角卡拉因重聽而學會唇語，雖有助聽器讓她能如常人般工作生活，但她的生理缺陷及平庸姿色，讓她年至卅五仍然小姑獨處。這個角色的設定讓人可以輕易理解女主角的心理狀態，她自卑而自閉，偏偏能讀唇語的能力和身旁已婚卻仍有豔遇的密友，在在提醒她自己的孤獨，以及無人滿足的慾望，她在深夜裸身鏡前、顧影自憐，然而在以男性為主的工作環境裡，她不但沒有得到眾星拱月的特殊待遇，反而成為男人們茶餘飯後的笑料；能隨時拆卸下來的助聽器，讓聽覺就像一件衣服，能隨心情冷暖而自由穿脫，但當與外界隔離之後，屬於自己的無聲世界又更加深她的孤寂。所以在片子一開始的時候，卡拉平凡無奇的生活當中隱藏的危機，其實在她自己身上，日復一日的單調生活醞釀了不顧一切的勇氣，觀至片終，我分不清她究竟是陷入還是掙脫？
很深切的感受到卡拉獨守空閨的寂寞，她聞嗅保羅的襯衫、棉被，回應著想像中保羅的引逗，看著鏡中依然年輕緊實的身體，想到朋友所形容而從未體驗的高潮，而芳華卻將老去，她應該受到被世界忽視的傷害吧！想起中午在新公園的露天看台，以及夜晚幾回談話，沒有理由懷疑與Ｊ的曖昧，落在別人眼中清楚明白，而我並不希望那一切不是錯覺。Ｊ不是我喜歡的類型，在正常的情況下，（而我的人生何時正常過了呢？）感覺上他有點落伍，頭髮有點稀少，長相正常而不出眾，深褐色皮膚有幾處白斑，還有很深的黑眼圈，如果這是他最好的表現，那不知道真實的他是怎樣？但不想真的看到。我喜歡被照顧得很好，但交往後做到這點勢必理所當然，交往前則是福禍未知的不義之財。在陽光下，洗衣粉的氣味很乾淨，讓人覺得很安心，好想靠在白色的肩膀上。我了解，卡拉。
覺得很有趣的是非好萊塢片的冷靜與真實，沒有白吃的午餐，這點道理人人都懂，保羅明白卡拉的渴望，但卡拉要的遠不止於此，以身相許並非只有交媾本身，還包括生命的相濡以沫，他們交換彼此的特殊才能，協助彼此度過難關，而在進退來往之間，他們涉入更深。第一主角是卡拉而非保羅，卡拉的生命在此大幅改變，她在酒吧裡逐漸放開自己，她在午夜埋伏屋頂夜窺，她讓保羅剷除公司內的對手，她找到那筆鉅款並讓保羅和自己最後全身而退，她得到自己渴望的種種，可是最後能保留多久？
(20030120)
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