Review of The Voices (1953) by Robert H — 05 Mar 2015

For some reason Ryan Reynolds hasn't really taken off as a movie star, but I can't really see why. He has the good looks and he has a likeable personality. Maybe it has to do with GREEN LANTERN? (not the best movie, but I still enjoyed it).

Well, this time teamed up with director Marjane Satrapi (PERSEPOLIS) in her English-language debut, Ryan Reynolds delivers what is probably the best performance of his career. He plays Jerry, a rather unassuming (but subtly creepy) guy who works at a faucet and fixture warehouse in a small town.

Everything seems alright on the surface, but deep inside Jerry has some problems. Aside from a troubled childhood, he also hears voices inside his head, and these voices tell him to do things...bad things.

I'll just say that for those looking for a lighthearted comedy, this isn't it. THE VOICES goes to some pretty dark places, but manages to balance the tone fairly evenly between comedy and shock, of which there is plenty.

But most importantly, Jerry is a guy you actually care about. Despite his...issues, he really wants to do the right thing and live a normal life. Too bad that his cat Mr. Whiskers is more influential than his goodhearted dog Bosco.

Across the board, all of the performances were excellent. You have Anna Kendrick and Gemma Arterton who play a couple of Jerry's coworkers, and Jacki Weaver plays his court-appointed psychiatrist.

They could have been developed a little more, but this is mostly Ryan Reynold's show and boy does he deliver! From a technical standpoint, I thought the cinematography and production design lent a sort of fairy-tale quality to the film, and the color scheme which had a lot of pinks and oranges provided a nice contrast with dark subject material.

As far as the gory stuff is concerned, they don't show a whole lot, instead opting for some pretty gruesome sound design. Often the power of suggestion is more effective than actually showing violent acts.

And, in this case, it actually works in the film's favor because Jerry can remain just as likeable when you don't actually see him kill people most of the time. If there's any weaknesses to the film, it's that it doesn't really try anything new or revolutionary in its approach to the whole "loveable serial killer" thing.

Almost nothing that happens in this movie is unpredictable in some way, with one big exception which I'll leave for you to experience on your own should you choose to watch this. Overall I enjoyed this a lot, mainly because I'm drawn to oddball films like this, but also because I haven't seen Ryan Reynolds this good in, well, forever.

For lovers of dark comedies, I'd say THE VOICES is a must-see.