2005年NPR美国国家公共电台五月-Movie Reviews A Social Tapestry on Film,

Film director Sally Potter likes to invent challenges for herself. Her 1993 movie Orlando was about a character who lives for four centuries, half of them as a man, half as a woman. And her latest film, Yes, is a modern day love story written entirely¹ in verse. Bob Mondello says he sees both reason and rhyme in her method.

She is Irish-American, elegant, and married unhappily. He is Middle-Eastern, a chef who sees her looking miserable² in a banquet he has helped cater³. He asks if she is OK, and he is so quietly attentive⁴ that she can't stop thinking about him. Soon she is doing more than just thinking, walking with him and talking in a manner that's far more intimate than anything she shares with her husband.
You think you can penetrate⁵ the mind of God.
I do not know God has a mind doing this, so I don't ...
Who can agree?
So just disagree.

I say the way they talk is intimate; it's also intensely stylized. Director Sally Potter is among other things a songwriter. So scripting a whole movie in iambic pentameter comes more naturally to her than it might to other filmmakers. It is still quite a trick though as if making a film about lovers separated by class, race, religion, and politics weren't complicated enough, happily the poetry does what poetry is supposed to do: it lends an epic⁶, heightened quality to the conversations. If you listen, you can hear the rhymes, but they don't get in the way of what's being said.

How do you come to this? You are confusing me with them. Look, I'm not just an American, I'm Irish too.

So what? You all have roots somewhere, but have forgotten, that, you are anything but powerful and be boss. You'll hear our children's screams but feel no loss because they are not yours.

That is unfair. The things that they have done, have not been in my name. I don't feel pride, I feel a deepening shame.

I've always been a sucker for eccentric narrative⁷ devices because they make an audience work a little , ask me to puzzle something out and I feel much more engaged than I do when everything is handed to me conventionally. Not every one feels that way obviously, particularly in the summer. But even if you regard the verse and subject matter in Yes as a little "out" there, it will be hard not to be bowled over by the performances. Joan Allen is just terrific, icy at first, than meltingly human. And Simon Abkarian is doing nicely shaded work as the Lebanese surgeon-turned chef so conflicted by his attraction to her. Sally Potter has been dealing⁸ not just with a love affair, but also with the kind of issues that clutter⁹ up real life: elderly relatives who die inconveniently¹⁰; children caught up in marital¹¹ wars. All that complication counts in my mind as a bonus, so does the fact that Yes arrives in the middle of Hollywood's silly season, which makes it a lot easier to say, "yes", too. I'm Bob Mondello.

1 entirely   

ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地

参考例句：

• The fire was entirely caused by their neglect of duty. 那场火灾完全是由于他们失职而引起的。
• His life was entirely given up to the educational work. 他的一生统统献给了教育工作。

2 miserable   

adj.悲惨的，痛苦的；可怜的，糟糕的

参考例句：

• It was miserable of you to make fun of him.你取笑他，这是可耻的。
• Her past life was miserable.她过去的生活很苦。

3 cater   

vi.(for/to)满足，迎合；(for)提供饮食及服务

参考例句：

• I expect he will be able to cater for your particular needs.我预计他能满足你的特殊需要。
• Most schools cater for children of different abilities.大多数学校能够满足具有不同天资的儿童的需要。

4 attentive   

adj.注意的，专心的；关心(别人)的，殷勤的

参考例句：

• She was very attentive to her guests.她对客人招待得十分周到。
• The speaker likes to have an attentive audience.演讲者喜欢注意力集中的听众。

5 penetrate   

v.透(渗)入；刺入，刺穿；洞察，了解

参考例句：

• Western ideas penetrate slowly through the East.西方观念逐渐传入东方。
• The sunshine could not penetrate where the trees were thickest.阳光不能透入树木最浓密的地方。

6 epic   

n.史诗，叙事诗；adj.史诗般的，壮丽的

参考例句：

• I gave up my epic and wrote this little tale instead.我放弃了写叙事诗，而写了这个小故事。
• They held a banquet of epic proportions.他们举行了盛大的宴会。

7 narrative   

n.叙述，故事；adj.叙事的，故事体的

参考例句：

• He was a writer of great narrative power.他是一位颇有记述能力的作家。
• Neither author was very strong on narrative.两个作者都不是很善于讲故事。

8 dealing   

n.经商方法，待人态度

参考例句：

• This store has an excellent reputation for fair dealing.该商店因买卖公道而享有极高的声誉。
• His fair dealing earned our confidence.他的诚实的行为获得我们的信任。

9 clutter   

n.零乱，杂乱；vt.弄乱，把…弄得杂乱

参考例句：

• The garage is in such a clutter that we can't find anything.车库如此凌乱，我们什么也找不到。
• We'll have to clear up all this clutter.我们得把这一切凌乱的东西整理清楚。

10 inconveniently   

ad.不方便地

参考例句：

• Hardware encrypting resists decryption intensely, but it use inconveniently for user. 硬件加密方法有较强的抗解密性，但用户使用不方便。
• Even implementing the interest-deferral scheme for homeowners has proved inconveniently tricky. 甚至是对房主实行的推迟利息的方案，结果证明也是极不方便的。

11 marital   

adj.婚姻的，夫妻的

参考例句：

• Her son had no marital problems.她的儿子没有婚姻问题。
• I regret getting involved with my daughter's marital problems;all its done is to bring trouble about my ears.我后悔干涉我女儿的婚姻问题, 现在我所做的一切将给我带来无穷的烦恼。