Review: The Voices

Ryan Reynolds decides to go dark and play crazy, a tradition that long marks an actor's attempt to shake off the dust. In The Voices, Reynolds plays Jerry Hickfang, a man not unlike Norman Bates in the way that we are unsure how mentally there he is even before he kills anyone. A perpetually cheerful person, Jerry is odd for sure and odd is not a quality often associated with Reynolds. Before too long Jerry begins talking to his dog and cat, Reynolds’ disguised voice. The two pets represent the good angel and bad devil from animated Disney cartoons.

Reynolds doesn't ever fully convince as a real person but he does pull off a rare emotionlessness that fits the character well. Even in scenes of bloody horror, Reynolds plays Jerry as emotionally blank and over time this technique is very effective. The bigger issues lie in the tonal shifts of the movie. Early in the film, things feel set for a pitch-black comedy.  At the same time, The Voices takes its hero’s crumbling sanity halfway seriously, especially once it gets around to a grotesque flashback designed to explain the origins of his lunacy. However, none of the seriousness is based in a sense of reality. The depth of inquiry into his craziness is akin to that of a horror film and not a psychological horror. There is also a strange attempt at a sweet love story that fizzles out due to a murder quicker than it should have.

Marjane Satrapi, the graphic-novelist-turned-filmmaker behind Persepolis and Chicken With Plums, sadly can't handle these shifts in tone. Her background is evident in a few trippier scenes but otherwise the film is rather drab in comparison to her work. As a movie, The Voices hits its mark only when playing the horror straight: A scene of Jerry’s smitten co-worker (Anna Kendrick) discovering the ugly truth about him is suspenseful and disturbing and sad in about equal measure, largely thanks to the casual menace of Reynolds’ controlled turn. Satrapi fumbles the tone and thus the film feels terribly uneven and even a bit long in its running time.

Overall The Voices is a mixed bunch that proves Ryan Reynolds can still pull a few tricks out of his hat and that Marjane Satrapi still has some growing to do as a filmmaker and storytelling. The Voices is hopefully a learning lesson for her.

2.5/5