The Lake House《触不到的恋人》（四）

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 joint.

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 maple growing right in the middle of the house.

Alex: Containment. 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 merger 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 (short)

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(洗后)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”。