《意外》- 放过别人，放过自己

在美国密苏里州的小镇，公路旁的三块大型告示牌，原本的旧广告已经剥落残破，但某天换上了新广告，以大大的红底黑字指控警长办奸杀案不力。

广告主是几个月前失去女儿的Mildred（法兰西丝麦朵曼），被指名办事不力的警长是Willoughby（伍迪哈里逊），警长忠心耿耿的副手Dixon（山姆洛克威尔）知道看板的事情后极为愤怒，想办法恶整Mildred以及负责告示牌的Red（Caleb Landry Jones）。

故事起头乍看很简单，好像会演变为Mildred与恶警的对抗，但并非如此，它的主题远比所谓善恶二元对抗大得多。《意外》不是三幕戏的传统剧本，不是犯罪片，不是复仇片，它是关于人物的研究，三位主要角色都不是扁平人物，都有很多面向与层次需要观察——他们的动机，他们的选择，这些选择又如何产生碰撞、影响，产生更多涟漪。

最重要的角色Mildred，生活一块块破碎瓦解。她的婚姻早已结束，与前夫的互动暗示著Mildred曾受家暴，女儿Angela生前与她处得并不好，女儿被奸杀后，Mildred更是被愤怒与自责吞噬，对儿子Robbie（在《海边的曼彻斯特》饰演儿子的Lucas Hedges）没有任何馀力关心或照顾。在一关又一关的挫折后，Mildred早已成了一只斗牛，随时等著攻击或羞辱对方。但这样的好战态度，令镇民很难支持明明是受害者家属的她，儿子的处境更是为难，不仅连带受到他人的排挤，偌大的告示牌也天天提醒他这辈子最想忘掉的事情。

被她指责查了好几个月都破不了案、让全镇女孩曝于险境的警长，也有无奈的理由。Angela的案子苦缺线索，没有相符的DNA就是无法确认与逮捕嫌犯，而警长自己也面临癌症威胁，来日无多，面对妻儿百味杂陈。Mildred放那三面告示牌点名警长，不仅于事无补，而且确实有欠厚道，也让镇民不谅解。

警长因为Mildred钻伤牙医手掌，侦询Mildred，她赖皮表示这案子只有“他说，她说”各执一词，办不了她，还提到这跟Angela的案件一样。她的戏谑嘲讽，其实也等于说明了她女儿的案件多么难办，把气出在警长身上其实意义不大，只是在宣泄情绪，并让自己觉得“我有在做些什么”罢了。愤怒成了Mildred的面具，底下藏著悲痛与自责。愤怒让她的人生破碎，却也让她感到解放。只要她不这样愤怒，就会陷入悲伤的无底洞里，如同她在告示牌下见到一头鹿的那一刻。

Dixon乍看之下是个符合刻板印象的小镇白人警察角色：似乎有点笨，但有十足的蛮力，爱打黑人出气，很崇拜警长。但原来，他也在为脱离妈妈控制、真正长大而奋战，并在某次受重伤送医后，因为在医院看见先前被他霸凌的人，对方的处境与态度，使Dixon对一切产生了新的想法。

每个人身上同时带有善与恶，人的选择则在整个善恶光谱上摇摇摆摆，有时下一刻就大移位。前述警长向Mildred问话的那幕，原本两方对话属于对抗状态，但在某意外之事发生时，敌意顿时放了下来，观众可以感受到那一刻彼此的理解与同情，Mildred也变得温暖许多。

而且“好人”这块招牌，不一定必然与善恶有关，也不是每个人都扛得起的。怎么样算个“好人”？警长当然是个好男人，有幽默感，有家庭，有癌症。而Mildred，她不是个“好”女人，她的婚姻没能维持住，又因为不甘心看女儿的案件成为死水，成天大张旗鼓，张牙舞爪，镇民看著很不舒服。有这些背景的Mildred，在何种情形之下可以被大家当成好女人？很简单：“安静悲伤痛苦地接受女儿被奸杀、凶手逍遥法外的事实”。换句话说，就是，“有受害者的样子”。Mildred选不了这条路，她若想扛“好人”招牌，比起其他人生相对顺遂的人们，难度高很多。

不过，Mildred渐渐也发现，自己鲁莽行事造成的伤害，再这样下去她跟Dixon恐怕也没什么不同。甚至，Dixon也有了转变，这两人在类似的时间点开始领悟，要如何让负面影响止在自己身上，甚至带给他人正面影响？这可以是很小的动作，可以只是替之前揍过自己的人倒杯果汁。

有时我们需要用他人视角看事情，看看关于正义、关于原谅、关于给自己与他人第二次机会代表著什么。《意外》有著浓浓的愤世嫉俗味道，却也同时带著希望。片尾两名角色“到时再看著办”的态度，暗示著他们还有更多时间与空间，可以学习如何用更好的方式面对这个世界。

编剧兼导演马丁麦克唐纳是剧作家出身，《杀手没有假期》是他的导演长片处女作，我非常推荐。《意外》延续了前作的独特黑色幽默，场景移到美国的虚构小镇Ebbing，加入一些社会批判，穿插性别与种族歧视、暴力等等议题，尤其暴力在片中处处出现，但似乎也无法处理，只能说是一种正常能量释放。我不确定导演选择将背景设于密苏里州，与几年前发生白人警察枪杀黑人Michael Brown、并造成大规模抗议事件的Ferguson小镇在同一个州，是否有关连，不过片中的各种暴力形式，在美国甚至全球各处，随时都在发生，只能看人们是否有足够能力，寻找更好的方式面对与处理了。

小花絮：《意外》灵感来自导演搭公车游美国时，看到类似的告示牌杵在公路边，等著广告主放上想让大家知道的讯息。

***
经典对白：
***

Mildred Hayes: So how’s it all going in the nigger- torturing business, Dixon?

Dixon: It’s ‘Persons of color’-torturing business, these days, if you want to know. And I didn’t torture nobody.

***

Mildred Hayes: Y’know what I was thinking about today? I was thinking ’bout those street gangs they had down in Los Angeles, the Crips and the Bloods? I was thinking about that buncha new laws they came up with, in the 1980’s I think it was, to combat those street-gangs, those Crips and those Bloods. And, if I remember rightly, the gist of what those new laws were saying was if you join one of these gangs, and you’re running with ’em, and down the block one night, unbeknownst to you, one of your fellow Crips, or your fellow Bloods, shoot up a place, or stab a guy, well then, even though you didn’t know nothing about it, even though you may’ve just been standing on a streetcorner minding your own business, what these new laws said was you are still culpable. You are still culpable, by the very act of joining those Crips, or those Bloods, in the first place. Which got me thinking, Father, that whole type of situation is kinda like your Church boys, ain’t it? You’ve got your colors, you’ve got your clubhouse, you’re, for want of a better word, a gang. And if you’re upstairs smoking a pipe and reading a bible while one of your fellow gang members is downstairs fucking an altar boy then,Father, just like the Crips, and just like the Bloods,you’re culpable. Cos you joined the gang, man. And I don’t care if you never did shit or never saw shit or never heard shit. You joined the gang. You’re culpable. And when a person is culpable to altar-boy-fucking, or anykinda-boy-fucking, I know you guys didn’t really narrow it down, then they kinda forfeit the right to come into my house and say anything about me, or my life, or my daughter, or my billboards. So, why don’t you just finish your tea there, Father, and get the fuck outta my kitchen.

***

Willoughby: I’d do anything to catch the guy who did it, Mrs. Hayes, but when the DNA don’t match no one who’s ever been arrested, and when the DNA don’t match any other crime nationwide, and there wasn’t a single eyewitness from the time she left your house to the time we found her, well… right now there ain’t too much more we could do.

Mildred Hayes: You could pull blood from every man and boy in this town over the age of 8.

Willoughby: There’s civil rights laws prevents that, Mrs. Hayes, and what if he was just passing through town?

Mildred Hayes: Pull blood from every man in the country.

Willoughby: And what if he was just passing through the country?

Mildred Hayes: If it was me, I’d start up a database, every male baby was born, stick ’em on it, and as soon as he done something wrong, cross reference it, make 100% certain it was a correct match, then kill him.

Willoughby: Yeah well, there’s definitely civil rights laws that prevents that.

***

Mildred Hayes: My daughter Angela was murdered 7 months ago, it seems to me the police department is too busy torturing black folk to solve actual crimes.

***