Week 13: The Voices

Director: Marjane Satrapi

Writer: Michael R. Perry

Seen: Sunday 29^th March 2015

Venue: Eye Cinema, Galway

Snacks: M&Ms

Mood: Weird 

Ok so last week Layla went on a wee rant (deservedly so) about how bad the film choices in the cinema were,  so I will spare you my thoughts on that needless to say they were very similar. The challenge of going to the cinema every week was evidently becoming just that, A CHALLENGE!

This week’s choices were not much better, or so I initially thought. The film this week certainly was not atrocious like last week’s diabolical, miss cast and mawkish 50 Shades of Grey (I had to get that in).

The reason this week was not as terrible is because of a peculiar, quirky little film called The Voices, a film I did not hear or read anything about, but it is the odd kind of thing I enjoy. The Voices is a film about Jerry played by Ryan Reynolds and his two (supposedly) talking animals Bosco the dog (yes Bosco, class name) and Mr. Whiskers the cat. However, this isn’t a pleasant family friendly comedy like Look Who’s Talking (1989) or Doctor Dolittle (1998) although it does as first seem like that, and admittedly it is a comedy but of the very dark kind.The Voices is directed by the Iranian Marjane Satrapi whose most notable work was the very well received animated feature Persepolis (2007) and alongside Ryan Reynolds stars Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick and Jacki Weaver. 

There have been many, many bad reviews for this film and I have read some stinkers since I’ve seen it, Peter Bradshaw described it as an “overwhelmingly dislikable film”. Whilst it would be easy to pick this film apart critically because it is flawed and I am sure it could have been a better film, it does seem a bit rushed and the way it tackles the issue of mental health might not be for everybody. There is, however, a quirky quality to this film that is refreshing and many people I believe will enjoy The Voices just as I did.