The Voices

The Voices

To start with, NO! This hasn’t got anything to do with the generic and amazingly boring TV singing show. It looks at a loveable yet troubled man called Jerry, played by Ryan Reynolds who pursues a colleague whom he has a crush on but due to his ‘angel and devil’ pets talking to him, things go slightly catastrophic. The films also includes Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick as notable other characters, with his hilarious, diabolical pets called Mr Whiskers and Bosco both being voiced by Reynolds himself.

This film had my friend and I laughing throughout and yet kept a dark tone that wasn’t completely made light of. Instead it uses these dark moments as a source of situational comedy. The film does look at mental health and does this in an interesting way, Jerry having problems that we all have yet not having the right communication strategies and coping mechanisms, turns to ‘the voices’.  The film is clever and uses a mix of dialogue and visual comedy as a method of entertaining the audience. It keeps Jerry in a favourable place to the audience but does this by using his tragic problems as a source of sympathy but I feel like his character was always good.

Gemma Arterton and Anna Kendrick are both given their own distinctive personalities in this film and these both have different effects on how we feel towards them in the film.

The films location is ambiguous along with when it would be set, as there is a unique blend on technologies and themes, creating an almost fantasy town vibe. And the film plays well on opposites with many shots being very well set and lit. Some juxtapositions are Light vs. Dark, Good vs. Evil/Angel vs. Demon, Health vs. Sick/Unstable Reality vs. Fantasy/Delusions and finally Mr Whiskas vs. Bosco.

I found the ending very satisfying through lack of a better word. I found it to be in some ways the righteous and most complete end. Leaving me with a feeling of completeness, that in this world we know what happened and who was good and who wasn’t.

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