The Voices, 2014
Directed by Marjane Satrapi.
Starring Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick.
SYNOPSIS:
A factory worker accidentally murders his co-worker after hearing voices from his pet dog and cat.
Festival films come thick and fast during the press screenings. It’s hard to keep track of what the next movie is about. Glancing at my notes before The Voices began simply read “Ryan Reynolds’ cat and dog tell him to kill people.” That’s a hell of an elevator pitch.
Initially, the film feels a bit too cartoony. The colour palette is perfectly balanced, full of pleasant reds and greens. The uniforms at the toilet factory where Jerry Hickfang (Ryan Reynolds), a recently released mental patient, works are pastel pink, complementing the rest of the set design beautifully. The town in which he lives is permanently lit in warm sunshine. Even the forest scene, where Jerry commits his first murder, is painted like something from Snow White.
This camp tone was the one aspect of the film keeping me at arm’s length. Reynolds is fantastic (to believe him as such a stuttering loner is some feat, considering he’s the same guy who was plastered along my commute to work, selling male perfume in a dapper suit and designer stubble for four months); the animal CGI is pulled off just right (the dog and cat are real, but their moving mouths are digitally created, a la Babe); and the descent into murder, from a mentally disturbed man struggling against the voices in his head to do good, is portrayed with both a wonderfully dark sense of humour and disturbing poignancy. Some moments, particularly near the end, are profoundly sad. But still, that whiter-than-white palette was cheapening the film.
Then, about half an hour in, Jerry takes the pills his court-appointed psychotherapist keeps insisting he have. The white picket fences and idealistic world are revealed as just a lucid haze. The effects dulled by medication, Jerry’s flat isn’t kitschly decorated, tidy and colour-coded. It’s decrepit, with animal faeces smeared on the floor, the blood from his first murder staining the bathroom, and a stack of dirty Tupperware boxes containing their decapitated remains.
The cute appearance and blackly comic gags of The Voices are a rouse. The undertones are far darker than they first appear. The gimmick that might help this crossover into the mainstream – TALKING ANIMALS! (voiced by Reynolds) – is a relatively slight component to a rather complex film.
Again, during the climax, I could feel myself becoming distanced once again. Jerry’s choices near the end didn’t feel bold enough to redeem his character. But then the closing credits rolled, a bewildering sequence better not retold, a delightful surprise when you thought all your presents had already been unwrapped. And, just like that, I loved it again.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Oliver Davis is one of Flickering Myth’s co-editors. You can follow him on Twitter (@OliDavis).
Originally published April 26, 2014. Updated November 28, 2022.
