The Voices is a 2015 horror/ comedy about a likable guy who pursues his office crush with the help of his evil talking pets, but things turn sinister when she stands him up for a date.
My go to murder-or-fun flick is Little Shop of Horrors. Obviously. I just assume it’s everyone’s. It’s funny, musical, and well, it has Steve Martin and by universal law, that makes it manna from the cinema gods. If you don’t know, it’s about a nebbish sort of guy with a big talking plant that feeds on people. Check it out. Barring that, put your eyes on The Voices, another dark, funny, not-so-musical murderous fantasy that is, the more I think about it, nothing like Little Shop of Horrors, and in fact is sort of an ebony dark opposite with no talking plant but rather a couple of mouthy pets. Either way, it dang good.
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THE STORY: Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is a happy-go-lucky sort of fellow gainfully employed at the Milton Fixture & Faucet, where he packs and ships bathtubs. Everyone gets along with Jerry, a hard-working and cheerful guy who just wants to be liked. Jerry is also schizophrenic and choosing not to take his court-appointed medications. This is bad. Now his dog Bosco and his cat Mr. Whiskers talk to him, one playful and the other, well … not so much.
When Jerry is offered the chance to organize the company picnic, he hopes the opportunity will get him close to his crush Fiona (Gemma Arterton), the office hottie who naturally doesn’t have all that much interest in the lovable goof. He makes a date with her yet when she ditches him to sing karaoke, he’s a little despondent. Later that evening, when her car breaks down and he offers her a ride, things take a bad turn when he hits a deer on the road. Seeing the dark side of Jerry when he ‘hears the animal beg to die,’ (which he obliges with a hunting knife) she bolts from the car and into the woods where he chases her … holding his knife … and yup, stabs her by accident(?).
Under the guidance of his cat, he takes her home, cuts her up and puts her head in the fridge. Can you guess what comes next? Of course you can. Fiona starts talking to Jerry and just like a blood-hungry talking plant, wants Jerry to get her some friends. It’s lonely in a fridge with no other heads. Time for a killing spree.
WHY YOU NEED TO WATCH: Reynolds has really come into his own as a great-looking self-effacing comedic genius in his own right. He’s got this terrific way about him, a kind of naive innocence that makes roles like this click so effortlessly (Ben Stiller was the original choice, and probably could have done something special with it as well). It’s why his Deadpool movies works so well because we don’t think about words like that coming out of his mouth. At least we didn’t. Know we just crave it.
As Jerry, Reynolds plays a tortured soul in a twisted mind trying to be normal but consumed by the freedom his delusions afford him. In his off-colored world, everything is like a Dr. Seuss book, bright, cheerful, bubbling over in delightful charms and talking animals. He’s haunted by his childhood, one scorched by abuse and trauma, where he did a very bad thing at the behest of his mother, already burdened by his monstrous father. It’s startling how affecting these flashbacks are in defining what he expect Jerry to be.
Then there is Lisa (Anna Kendrick), the other side of the Fiona coin, who awakens something within Jerry that no medication can. I really love how the script (by Michael R. Perry) takes risks and does things off to the left. Lisa is a perfect example of this, as the film gets extremely dark but in a very (disturbingly) amusing way, pitting Jerry against the very things that he thought were keeping him stable. It’s great stuff.
A GREAT MOMENT: I hate to spoil any part of this movie, which has plenty of well-earned surprises, and so I’ll just shed a little splinter of light on a small moment when Jerry goes back on his meds. It’s about 40-minutes into the film when he makes this choice and then falls asleep, waking up in the morning where everything is different. Really, really different. I won’t say what he sees, but it’s very well done, instantly shifting absolutely everything we see as well, not only with our eyes, but in our minds. It’s a sensational moment that gets further payoff a bit later in the story. We feel the rug pulled out so to speak.
THE TALLY: That’s the real magic of director Marjane Satrapi, whose gift for imagery and building suspense truly give this kick. This is a story that has plenty of companions, movies are filled with troubled folks who make some very bad choices. The Voices is a wickedly dark comedy with a savage bite, led by a smart script and an even better performance. There are a number of layers to the film, staying true to its comedy but under the grim humor finding some drama that feels just right. Perhaps not for everyone, this is nonetheless well worth exploring. Trippy and brutal, it’s a visual nightmare of comedic horror that hits the beats one right after the other. Plus, what’s up with that The 40-Year-Old Virgin ending? Awesome. It’s what to watch.