Some movies stumble into cult status by accident, aiming for mainstream approval, but landing wide of that mark. Other movies just shrug and steer self-consciously into a cult-friendly niche with every fiber of their being. It isnt easy to do the former, but its probably easier than the latter. Weirdness-for-the-sake-of-weirdness often just ends up trying too hard. Its almost like you need a certain earnestness to make a cult film seem genuine, rather than over-calculated. The Voices, which is premiering out-of-competition at the Sundance Film Festival, is designed pretty purely as a cult movie. It probably should never play in 3000 theaters and its certainly not going to make $100 million. From the first frame to the last, its begging audiences to raise a collective eyebrow and go along for the ride, knowing that if youre in from the beginning, youll probably be in for the duration, but that if you dont crack an immediate smile within 30 seconds, it probably wont get better. The Voices is trying to be a cult film with a capital C and you can feel its effort in that direction... But it mostly works. Carried to no small degree by wildly and successfully against-expectations direction from Persepolis veteran Marjane Satrapi, The Voices is Psycho by way of Wonderfalls by way of Francois Ozon. Perhaps a little more successful when winking at genre expectations than when playing things straight, The Voices is funny, disturbing and whimsical, anchored by an Oh right, he can act performance by Ryan Reynolds, an Oh duh, shes effortlessly appealing performance by Anna Kendrick and an Oh wow, thats what it takes to make her interesting performance by Gemma Arterton. More after the break… Reynolds plays Jerry Hickfang, an unfortunate factory worker whose unfortunate name is the least unfortunate thing about him. Jerry is socially awkward and his job in fixture and faucet shipping is at the whim of his court-appointed psychiatrist (Jacki Weaver). From a distance, hes in love with vivacious British temp Fiona (Arterton), but something about him intrigues recently divorced Lisa from Accounts Payable. Jerry lives in a tiny apartment next to a bowling alley that never seems to have any customers, but always has the sound of crashing pins in the background. He has no wife or friends, but he lives with a large, lovable dog and a judgmental, aloof cat. Otherwise alone, Jerry talks to his pets. And they talk back. The cat is a foul-mouthed sociopath with a Scottish accent. The dog may lack for IQ points, but not for virtue and devotion. See, Jerrys not quite right in the head. And this whole scenario is headed in a murderous direction. Written by NYPD Blue and Law & Order: Special Victim Unit veteran Michael R. Perry with a tangible giddiness at breaking away from a 42-minute procedural format, The Voices has a goofball conceit that will surely amuse pet owners, coupled with a psychologically twisted side that takes plenty of little jabs at the same people. Effectively, The Voices is the story of an unsteady man with a feline devil on one shoulder and a canine angel on the other. What saves it from going down a quirky wormhole is Satrapis approach, which is a dizzying mixture of artificiality and unnerving realism. [If you know me and my love for Babe, you know Im a sucker for effectively rendered talking animals and these talking animals are effectively rendered, with a combination of digital effects for lip-flap, smart lighting for emotional amplification and some well-cast furry stars.] The Voices is set in the regionally non-specific American community of Milton, The Town of Industry, but it was all filmed in Germany, largely on soundstages. The result is a location in which everything, from the restaurants to the consumer goods, is familiar but also alien. Much of the disassociation is meant to mirror Jerrys view of the world, though that view also varies depending on whether or not hes on his meds. Its an utter trip that the woman behind Persepolis would have this kind of movie in her, but in retrospect, it makes sense. Satrapis background in illustration is evident in every carefully composed frame and in the eye-popping color scheme that stretches through Udo Kramers production design and Bettina Helmis costumes. And then when The Voices pushes into its darker, thriller territory, it helps that cinematographer Maxime Alexandres background includes things like High Tension. The films ability to go back and forth between absurdity and actual creepiness is also at least somewhat tied to Reynolds performance, which has an air of menace mixed with its comedic simpleness. I made the Psycho comparison above and theres a lot of Anthony Perkins in what Reynolds is doing here. In the early-going, I think Reynolds maybe slightly overplays Jerrys awkwardness, especially since by the time you understand the origin of the characters pathology hes already evolved, but hes very good with the characters sadness and his innocence. I dont know if this is Reynolds best performance, but its one of the most layered characters hes played and as the movie progressed, I was definitely impressed with some of the stuff he was doing. Helping bring out the human side to Reynolds character is Anna Kendrick, whose approachable charm is always an asset. One of Kendricks gifts is that you can put her on screen with nearly anybody and she can make it seem like they have chemistry and Reynolds is no exception. It initially seems like Kendrick was supposed to be playing the unattractive co-worker, but thats mostly in comparison to Arterton, whose curvy lushness has rarely been better used without really being exploited. It would probably be spoiling to say the limitations Arterton is working against in certain scenes, but it forces her to land her punchlines with admirable crispness. The goofiness of The Voices is established immediately with the opening credits that mix cute animation, with an industrial ballet of fork lifts and pink jump suits. It deepens with the introduction of profane Mr. Whiskers. It hits its peak in the middle when the violence moves into macabre, Grand Guignol excess. It falters a little as the strip tries to justify character origins which, frankly, probably work better without grounding or explanation. I had a brief fear that there was no way the movie could find an ending that matched the spirit of its beginning, but then The Voices nails a loopy conclusion. This wont be a movie for everybody and I wonder if the title, however appropriate, might not capture its tone, but people are going to be enjoying and talking about The Voices for a long time, even if they just call it, The movie with Ryan Reynolds and the Scottish talking cat Source Of Hitfix hitfix/the-fien-print/review-surprising-the-voices-offers-ryan-reynolds-and-a-scottish-talking-cat
Posted on: Thu, 23 Jan 2014 03:58:41 +0000
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