Deadpool may have garnered the hype and box office, but in my opinion this little black comedy from 2014 is more entertaining and a better show case for Ryan Reynold's abilities.
Unless you go into the film absolutely blind, and not likely for long even then, it becomes evident that Reynold's character is a "special person". Like the munchkin lead of
The Lego Movie, Reynolds believes "Everything is Awesome", as he goes about his job at the bath fixtures company (with its dazzling bright pink aesthetic on everything, including workers' overalls, forklifts and cartons). He enthusiastically participates in setting up the company party and tries (too) hard to attract the attention of the office hottie (Gemma Atherton). He also regularly visits a state psychiatrist who constantly badgers him about taking his medication (uh-oh). And he has a dog and cat, Bosco and Mr. Whiskers respectively...who he talks to...and who talk back to him.
It's the curse of the under-confident person, I get discomfited by films / TV series where the humor is at the expense of someone's embarrassment, which is why I did not see more than the stray episode of
Willard (in which the dysfunctional lead character sees his neighbor's dog as an anthropomorphic talking entity), but I can see how it could have been the inspiration for Reynold's interaction with his chatty friends - Bosco represents the angel archetype telling Reynolds he's "a good boy", while Mr. Whiskers is, like many cats, an unapologetic A-Hole.
The film gets more drama when Reynolds ends up accidentally(?) murdering the hottie, and tries to (ahem) bury the issue by taking home the body, chopping it into little bits and keeping her head in the refrigerator; as it turns out, that's only the start of a chain of events.
What differentiates
The Voices from other bizarre comedies is that it's not content with drawing easy giggles. Reynold's character may be a Norman Bates stereotype (there is even a deliberate wink to that inspiration), but he is developed with sensitivity and dimension, and the script succeeds in making you feel for this murderous bumbler. There is also intelligent use of visual cues to differentiate between Reynold's fantasy world and reality.
There are some stumbles, like when a literal conga line of Reynold's colleagues come snooping around his home instead of alerting the police even after they have uncovered enough indications to raise the flag of suspicion, but the film does not overreach its grasp and I found sufficient charm and that magic blend of humor and pathos to overlook these deficiencies.
I got the film off Amazon UK in the ridiculously cheap (5 GBP) steelbook edition blu-ray by Arrow Films. Being a recent film, it's a no-brainer that the transfer is crisp, colorful and detailed, and the audio is strong (especially noticeable in the musical segments). Extras include a bunch of interviews, deleted scenes etc.
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The Voices Steelbook (Zavvi Exclusive) (UK)
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