A motion picture reconstructs the infamous Profumo scandal in UK, 1963, concerning the adultery between John Profumo, the then Secretary of the State in War of Harold Macmillan’s Conservative government, and a 19-year-old erotic dancer Christine Keeler, whose corollary directly cripples the Conservative Party’s cachet and mostly accounts for its rout by the Labor Party in the 1964 general election.

Directed by a first-timer, the Scottish Michael Caton-Jones, SCANDAL swerves its focal point from Profumo (played by a phlegmatic McKellen sporting a goofy bald haircut) to Keeler (Whalley) and her confidant Stephan Ward (Hurt), a hedonistic osteopath who spots her in the club and invites her to live with him, introduces her to manifold male personage, and encourages her to never say “no” to a dare, and puzzlingly he never puts any action to copulate with her throughout the whole affair.

What is the quiddity of the relationship between Keeler and Ward? As on multiple occasions, Keeler refutes “I’m not a prostitute and Ward is not my pimp”, yet their intimate but perversely chaste co-dependence tickles our curiosity, for that matter, SCANDAL wades into a rarer stretch of waters, to dissect a mutual limerence between a man and woman, without letting their libido steal the limelight, maybe Ward is impotent, his Freudian satisfaction can only be quenched by grooming her into a worldly minx, yet that is anybody’s guess. By comparison, the Keeler Affair, Christine’s courtesan-like swinging between various parties, from Profumo to Eugene Ivanov (Krabbé), the Soviet spy, only reveals to be a side dish of dalliances, which makes the aftermath even more staggeringly stinging.

In the end of the day, it is Ward who sits in the defendant’s seat as the whipping boy after all his so-called friends uniformly leave him in the lurch as soon as the wind changes, Profumo remains scot-free after his resignation, Keeler’s court testimony has no weight with her naive affection, the merciless interpersonal betrayal acts as the last straw weighing down on Ward’s disillusion and world-weariness. If that is the tenor behind the whole project, the outcome is well produced.

Ribald in its imagery (as per the standard for a UK picture), but less confident in organizing a coherently sensuous exposé, SCANDAL feels leaden in the ambience and occasionally stilted in the unraveling (political agenda, upper crust depravity, is all scratched on the surface only), although the cast is more than average, Hurt is amiable in general but also can let up inner turbulence with expressions only; Bridget Fonda nails the British accent as a more men-savvy glamor puss who is craving for any chink of spotlight, and Whalley, the ex-Mrs. Val Kilmer, as alluring as she is, is visibly on the wrong side of 20, too sophisticated to pass for an ingénue who is clueless in placating her warring, jealous man friends, infantilized only for her sexual appeal, judging by that, SCANDAL’s saucy subject matter sorely needs a rejiggering.

referential entries: Steven Soderbergh’s SEX, LIES AND VIDEOTAPES (1989, 7.3/10); Neil Jordan’s MONA LISA (1986, 7.1/10).

傳記zhengzhi丑聞愛情片。男主是一個(gè)zhengzhi掮客，專門在夜場尋找美麗女孩去介紹給高官顯貴獲取政治資本縱情玩樂。但是因?yàn)槔渎淞伺鳎慌鲗⒊舐勍ㄟ^報(bào)紙公之于眾，結(jié)局保守黨的一大幫政要都身陷丑聞，導(dǎo)致了英國最大的xing丑聞案，保守黨也隨之下臺(tái)。紀(jì)實(shí)影片，基本反映當(dāng)時(shí)情況，發(fā)揮不多，時(shí)間有點(diǎn)長。

男主是個(gè)治背痛的醫(yī)生，認(rèn)識(shí)很多達(dá)官顯貴。他常常去一些夜場物色一些年輕貌美的女子，用來介紹給達(dá)官顯貴，賺取政治資本，縱情玩樂。一次他在眾多夜場女子中看中了一個(gè)女子，美艷動(dòng)人，艷壓全場，她追求她，然后帶她進(jìn)出一些達(dá)官顯貴參加的夜場，將女子介紹給那些達(dá)官顯貴。女主也很爭氣，施展自己的媚功將那些達(dá)官貴人迷得暈頭轉(zhuǎn)向，三魂丟了兩魄，幾乎天天有人邀約，有時(shí)這個(gè)才送走，那個(gè)又來了，幾乎都沒有空閑。但是女主接待的國防部長，疑心比較重，老覺得女主鄰居在窺視他，于是他要求為女主安排住處，便于兩個(gè)人幽會(huì)。女主不愿意離開男主，所以和國防部長鬧崩了。很快她又開始吸大麻，為了獲得大麻，她竟然成了販大麻黑人的女友，還接交了一個(gè)黑人小伙。因?yàn)闋庯L(fēng)吃醋，販大麻的黑人和黑人小伙大打出手。黑人小伙還跑去男主房子那里開槍撞門，結(jié)果引來了很多記者。男主生氣了，因?yàn)樗@種政治掮客最怕曝光，所以男主在大雨中讓女主下車。女主在絕望中遇到了一個(gè)報(bào)紙的記者，說出了所有的丑聞，報(bào)紙刊登后，保守黨被口誅筆伐，受到公眾的質(zhì)疑，產(chǎn)生了信任危機(jī)。雖然身陷丑聞的政府官員毅然否認(rèn)一切，但是還是經(jīng)不起媒體、公眾的圍追堵截，最后只得以辭職告終。警方也開始調(diào)查男主是否通敵，在警方的嚴(yán)詞審問下，男主不堪重負(fù)，自殺了。保守黨也因?yàn)槌舐勏屡_(tái)了。

女主真心很像瑪麗蓮夢露，我還以為是說女主和尼克松的故事，最后會(huì)被暗殺，結(jié)果女主活了下來，男主卻不堪重負(fù)死去了，蠻感慨的。女主很美，就是什么都沒看到。身材也不錯(cuò)。那些政府官員真是滿嘴謊話，明明貪戀女主，日日尋歡，卻在丑聞暴露后否認(rèn)一切，真是不要臉。不過zhengzhi就是這么黑暗的，看似光鮮，其實(shí)就是骯臟不堪，非一般人可以認(rèn)清的。