The Mole Agent, now available on streaming services, is a deftly charming documentary about a private investigator hired to find out whether elder abuse is happening at a nursing home in Chile. Directed byMaite Alberdi在这部电影中，一位年长的绅士受雇成为这个家庭的居民，并亲自观察事件。塞尔吉奥80多岁了，刚丧偶不久，他申请了这份工作，彬彬有礼、优雅地接受了这份工作。

这部电影是疗养院生活的一幅凄美的画面。有些居民没有家人来看他们，有些居民的家人从不来看他们。有身体和智力衰退或衰退的居民。有些居民会偷一些看似诱人的小东西。

大多数居民都是女性，她们对有一个勇敢的男人出现感到兴奋，这是可以理解的。虽然日常生活通常以无聊为标志，但悲伤和死亡的时刻也夹杂着舞蹈和欢乐的时刻。

Yet deception is at the heart ofThe Mole Agent. When Sergio enters the home, he is introduced as a new resident. But he has come to the home as a spy, not to live out his remaining days. Sometimes, he is not very good at concealing his observations. Sometimes he violates the privacy of other residents. Most importantly, his conduct encourages others to rely on him as a friend and trust him with their affections.

The deception is well intentioned, as Sergio has been hired to try to find out whether staff are mistreating residents. Nonetheless, it raises philosophical questions abouttrustbeyond the straightforward question of whether lies can ever be justified by good intentions.

Trust involves the creation of expectations over time. As these expectations develop, we come to rely on each other. But this mutual reliance carries the risk of disappointment if our expectations are not well-grounded. When trust is not warranted, Annette Baier argues in her classic essay “Trust and Antitrust,” the appropriate response is not just disappointment, but a sense of betrayal.

并不是塞吉奥做的每件事都辜负了别人对他的期望，他对养老院的揭露也尊重了养老院的居民。他最终揭示的是家庭工作人员的善良，以及家庭与他们所爱的人保持联系的失败。即使在他离开后，塞尔吉奥仍然会回来看望他在那里结识的朋友。在这方面，他没有完全违背别人对他的信任。

Nevertheless, Sergio’s presence in the nursing homeisa violation of trust. As a mole, pretending to be someone who will continue to be an ongoing part of the other residents' lives, he gains access to private spaces under false pretences. The emotional attachments he subsequently develops are built on this deception and come with the added risk that he will be meaningful to his companions in a way that they are not meaningful to him. In this way, their trust in Sergio isnotwarranted. By entering the home under false pretences, he treats others as mere means to an end and not as fully informed agents in themselves.

Nursing homes are especially risky contexts for trust. Residents are physically dependent on others for care. With diminishing or fluctuating cognitive capacities, they may be unable to assess whether others are trustworthy. Expectations may be fragile; residents decline or die, and staff turnover is high. Small pleasures may be especially meaningful—and the disappointment felt more keenly if they turn out to be hollow. Given these enormous risks, it is especially troubling when nursing homes become contexts in which betrayals of trust occur.

The Mole Agent是在新冠病毒揭示全球养老院的真正可怕情况之前拍摄的。About 40% of U.S. deaths have beenlinked to nursing homes; the figuresworldwide同样是毁灭性的。Surveillance techniques used in nursing homes to monitor residents for risks of falls and wandering outside have drawncritical attentionfor violation of patient dignity and for the likelihood that they contribute to custodial maintenance rather than humane care. Recentresearch at Stanfordis exploring whether robots may help nursing homes deliver care more safely—and, not incidentally, more cheaply too. Covid, surveillance, and robots all raise broader questions about whether we can trust nursing homes to serve the best interests of their residents.

The nursing home inThe Mole Agentharks back to an apparently happier, pre-pandemic world. But the small-scale deception at its premise raises an important question: what should we be doing to gather the information we need and make the social changes that could prevent the tragedies that are ongoing for nursing home residents and their families today? Are these circumstances so serious that deception likeThe Mole Agentis permissible? Perhaps—but if so, we should be especially careful to ensure that these methods are in the interests of residents rather than designed for cost control or convenience.

我最近不怎么写博客了。躲在家里，在流媒体上看电影，远没有真正去电影院看有趣。I’ll be watching Sundance festival films this year from my laptop without the buzz of audiences and the discovery of films likeThe Mole Agent(which I saw at Sundance 2020). But I’m realizing that I need to make do with what I have, hope for what will come, and thatphilosophymatters now more than ever.