The Voices (2014)

Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Anna Kendrick, Gemma Arterton, and Jacki Weaver
Grade: B+

The Voices is about a serial killer from the killer’s twisted perspective. This was a tough film to make, but they actually pull this off.

Summary

Jerry (Reynolds) is a mentally unstable person living in a small town and working at a bathtub factory. At work one day, his manager tells him he’s doing a great job, and he told Jerry’s court-appointed psychiatrist Dr. Warren (Weaver) this fact as well. Next, he talks about how the company he works for is having its yearly party, and they appoint one person from each department to help plan it. Since it’s usually the new guy that is chosen and Jerry’s the new guy in shipping, Jerry’s manager calls upon him to represent his department. Jerry is unsure of doing it, but the manager does mention that the girl from accounting, Fiona (Gemma Arterton), will be one of the workers that’s a part of the planning. Now, Jerry is on board for sure. After work, he goes home, and we see his mental instability on full display. Jerry has a dog named Bosco and a cat named Mr. Whiskers. In Jerry’s head however, Bosco and Mr. Whiskers both speak to him and offer advice. In reality, their opinions represent the voices inside Jerry’s head in an angel/devil sort of manner. This causes Jerry to get into fits because he’s constantly arguing with himself.

The next day, he goes to a meeting for the party planning committee and is overenthusiastic for the project because he gets to work with Fiona for a little bit, though no one else there matches his energy. Following this, he goes to his appointment with Dr. Warren. It goes well, despite Jerry’s visible uncomfortableness when they discuss his now deceased mother and how she used to hear voices in her head too. She even referred to them as “angels”. Dr. Warren also notices his noncommittal answers when she asks if he’s been taking his pills. This prompts her to stress the importance of him taking his pills. Later, after getting into an argument with Mr. Whiskers that night over his chances with Fiona, Jerry approaches her at work the next day. This time though, he surprises her by going to accounting to greet her. She’s not interested in him in the slightest but fellow accountant Lisa (Kendrick) is. Lisa mentions to him that the women in accounting are going out for a drink after work. She invites him, despite Fiona not being so happy about Lisa inviting the work weirdo to hang with them. He agrees to go without hesitation. That night, the group hangs out at a restaurant. Lisa tries to flirt with Jerry, but he doesn’t catch it because he’s so fixated on the uninterested Fiona. She asks Jerry for a ride home, but Jerry takes Fiona home instead, even though she was very willing to have him take Lisa.

On the ride home, Jerry asks Fiona if she wants to meet him at his favorite Chinese restaurant Shi Shen on Friday night. She agrees to it, though it seems like it was more because he was giving her a ride, and she felt obligated to say so in the moment. On Friday at work, Jerry drops by accounting and gives Lisa the address to Shi Shen to give to Fiona who isn’t there at the moment. However, as soon as he leaves the room, Fiona reveals herself to be hiding. She tells Lisa and her other co-worker Alison (Ella Smith) that she’s going to cancel on Jerry, but she’ll do so by voicemail after work. This way, she can meet up Lisa and Alison for karaoke instead. That night, Jerry goes to Shi Shen but realizes he got stood up. At the same time, Fiona has fun with the accounting girls at karaoke.

This is also where we see Alison perform the worst rendition of ODB’s “Shimmy Shimmy Ya” that I’ve ever heard in my entire life.

As the night ends and it starts raining like crazy, Lisa drives Fiona back to her car because she’s parked at their work. After Lisa leaves, Fiona finds that her car isn’t starting. She also dropped her phone in a puddle as soon as they left the bar, so she can’t call anyone either. She waits the rain out for a bit and waves down Jerry, who happened to be driving by. Jerry is sad at first because Fiona stood him up, but she is able to convince him of her innocence by asking him if he got her message about tonight. Realizing he judged her too harshly, even though he didn’t, he drives her to a cheap burger joint at her request. On the way there, they discuss Lisa liking him and how Jerry’s family moved to America from Berlin when he was seven. They drive and talk some more, but Jerry eventually crashes into a deer, severely injuring it. As Fiona is in shock, Jerry imagines the deer talking to him, begging Jerry to cut its throat to end its suffering. Jerry obliges, pulling out his knife and killing the deer, with the blood splattering onto Fiona’s face. Naturally, she runs out of the car, so Jerry goes after her trying to explain that the deer asked him to do it. At one point, she trips and falls and so does Jerry. Unfortunately, he was still holding his knife when he fell on top of her, stabbing her in the abdomen. She starts choking from the blood in her mouth. Realizing that she’s suffering like the deer, he kills her too, crying and apologizing as he does it.

He goes back home to hopefully be consoled by Bosco and Mr. Whiskers. Bosco reassures him he’s a good man and it was an accident, but Mr. Whiskers tells him he’s a murderer and he killed Fiona on purpose. As Jerry weeps, Mr. Whiskers tells him to get rid of the body, so he doesn’t get in trouble. So, Jerry goes back to the crash site and grabs the body. He runs into the sheriff once he leaves the hardware store, but he doesn’t suspect a thing. The guy just asks what happened to his car, so he tells him about the deer. Afterwards, he goes to Dr. Warren’s office for his next appointment. It goes well, but he admits he stopped taking the pills entirely and goes on this soliloquy about how his mind has been opened up completely because of it. Warren demands Jerry take the pills. Otherwise, she has to report to the authorities that he’s being noncompliant. He agrees to do so. Even so, he actually goes home to chop Fiona’s body into a million little pieces and puts them into several different Tupperware. He even puts her head in the refrigerator.

He goes to take his pill, but he’s unsure once Mr. Whiskers tells him how lonely he will be without the voices comforting him. Jerry considers this. However, after Fiona’s severed head demands Jerry take the pill, he does. That night, Jerry sits and gets a flashback in his head from his depressing childhood where he created this sock puppet to help him cope with life, resulting in his father flipping out on him and telling him it’s not real. His father then calls him and his mother psycho. Waking out of his vision, Jerry tries to talk to Bosco and Mr. Whiskers, but they aren’t responding. Realizing he is alone in this world, and that Fiona’s severed head is in the fridge, Jerry flips and tosses all his pills down the drain. Doubling down, he even pukes out the one he already took. In the morning, he wakes up energized and happy now that Bosco, Mr. Whiskers, and Fiona are all “talking” to him again. He eats breakfast with Fiona’s head on the table and they talk, with her asking Jerry to get her a friend because it gets lonely in the fridge. Of course, this means to kill someone again but this time on purpose. Fiona’s head suggests Lisa. He doesn’t want to and goes to work. The manager approaches him and says he saw Jerry at Shi Shen. He asks if he’s seen Fiona because she went missing. Obviously, Jerry tells him he has no idea where she went. Back at home, Mr. Whiskers tries to get Jerry to kill on purpose so he can truly feel how it is to be “alive”, but Bosco tells him not to and Jerry agrees…for a moment.

The next day at work, Jerry goes by accounting to see how Lisa is doing, and she asks him out for a drink after work. He’s down because he’s about to kill again. The problem is that Lisa happens to be pretty awesome.

My Thoughts:

The Voices is insane. You have never seen anything like it. This is a guarantee. Let me tell you what you need to know. This is a black comedy about Jerry, a man that hears voices in his head and projects them onto a dog, a cat, and eventually a severed head or two. They all tell him different things, but the head and the cat tell him to kill and to continue to kill. It’s demented, but you can’t look away. I know how ridiculous it sounds. When you’re watching, it can very well be the most difficult viewing experience you’ve had all year if you don’t know what you’re getting into. Before I watched it, I thought, “This is a black comedy with Ryan Reynolds and Anna Kendrick. There’s something about killing people. Okay, this might be good”. Well, it’s much more than that.

I cannot stress this enough.

Jerry, played by a fantastic Ryan Reynolds, is a troubled soul. The man is trying to find his way in life, despite dealing with a horrible childhood that has affected the entire trajectory of his life. It’s not some whiny childhood story either. His mother, who also had a myriad of mental health issues, decided to kill herself once the police came to get her. She states in the flashback, “I told them about the voices and now they won’t leave me alone”. She then slices her throat. As she bleeds out, she gives little Jerry the piece of glass and asks him to finish the job. Seeing his mother in pain, he goes through with it, and he’s sent to be institutionalized for most of his childhood. Only now is he out and about, trying to live and understand life. Can you imagine that entire scenario happening when you’re a child? If you ask why Jerry becomes the person he becomes, it’s pretty clear as to why and how because of this flashback that is as visceral as they come, especially when you combine it with the creepy sock puppet flashback explaining why he projects these voiced “characters” into things around him. He just wanted a support system, or someone to interact with. He’s never had anyone else to talk to or explain things, as well as even understand him in general. So, when he deals with people that actually engage with him like Dr. Warren and Lisa, he establishes a connection with them.

What’s interesting is how bad you feel for Jerry even with all of the stuff going on. When he talks about how he didn’t mean to do something or he cries because of his emotional problems and his inability to deal with what he’s done, you can’t help but feel for this poor kid because of the hand he was dealt in life. He never stood a chance. It’s not his fault, but sometimes the environment and the people that helped you growing up can be a major influence on how you think and who you become. Sadly, the same is true with Jerry. It becomes even more heartbreaking when he talks about how badly he wants to be good too. He never wanted to be this crazed murderer, but his head is telling him these actions are okay, giving him a constant moral battle that he can’t overcome because of his loneliness and subsequent refusal to take his pill. He wants help and wants to reverse time, but he’s afraid of what’s to come once he goes too far. This puts him in a spot where he can only go further. You can tell he’s a genuine person at heart. Unfortunately, life screwed him, and his heart is buried deep because of him never figuring out how to overcome his deficiencies. It’s a hole he can never escape.

Ryan Reynolds churned out a sensational performance, perfectly conveying the nuances of Jerry and the back-and-forth going on his head. At times, he can be a ruthless killer but can still make you feel bad for him, as he cries knowing that he has to cover his tracks, so he doesn’t get caught. At the same time, he can also be this shy, quiet, good-hearted awkward man that just wants a girlfriend. It’s truly incredible work. Playing a sympathetic serial killer is a difficult role to ask someone to play, but Reynolds pulls it off with flying colors. Seeing a good-looking guy like Reynolds be the weirdest dude at work is something you usually wouldn’t buy, but he does such a good job that you forget about all that. This is a hard thing to pull off for a heartthrob, but Reynolds does it with ease. It’s one of the very few roles where Ryan Reynolds reminds us how incredible he can be. He avoids his usual sarcastic shtick and just owns this performance and character, and he’s never done anything like it (before or after). It’s not my favorite role of his, but it’s easily one of the most impressive performances of his career. The dark scenes are even more heart-pumping because Jerry is so unpredictable once we see every facet of him, you don’t know what he’s going to do. It’s a level of anxiousness and excitement you don’t see too often in films like this one, especially one with Reynolds and Anna Kendrick of all people.

Lisa’s involvement lifts the entertainment value of this black comedy for numerous reasons. It’s heart-warming watching Anna Kendrick’s innocent persona and easygoingness being able to stop Jerry’s path to doom just because she’s so sweet to him. I’m not sure why she’s attracted to him in the first place, but their chemistry is understated and very loving. They’re great together. She was the perfect choice for this role. When he tells her his horrible backstory as he cries, and she gives him this look like, “I’m listening and I care”, sealing it with a kiss, it changes his life. They walk out together, and we even see Jerry put his knife on a shelf, changing his mind over killing her that very night. Who would’ve thought we would get such a cute, awkward romance in the middle of this story of a man becoming a serial killer? This unexpected romance, and the nervousness and awkwardness between the two when they start dating is so real and pure. Seeing Jerry happy, and Lisa trying to hide her smile at work, makes us happy. Finally, someone gives Jerry some attention! It’s something he’s needed his whole life. Though it all inevitably leads to more heartbreak, it’s a nice detour in the middle of the movie that adds a lot of interesting developments and drama to this oddball narrative.

The Voices is a tragedy through and through. A character like Jerry, as interesting and layered as he is, is in a no-win situation. However, seeing his struggle as we hope for the best is one worth viewing, if you’re mentally prepared for the material. I’m not saying it will mentally fuck you up, it’s just a weird ass movie if you know nothing about it beforehand.

Hopefully, this review will inform you.

A cool part of Jerry’s internal struggles is seeing the conversations with his dog and cat. Clearly, this is set up to be some of the funnier moments in the movie, but I can’t say that it really is. It’s just captivating because you try to unpack what they are saying once it’s established that this is all in his head. To add to it, Reynolds voices both characters too. The man was committed to Jerry. You have to give him credit. I also love how the cat is the evil voice. It just makes sense.

Cats are evil.

There’s a lot of detail in the movie that really added to the presentation of it all. When Jerry stops taking his pills, “opening his mind”, he becomes much happier and sees everything through the lens of his happy little fantasy world. Colors are brighter, his apartment is clean, and the music is cheerier. He even sees some butterflies at one point. This is a stark contrast from reality. When we are shown the disturbing real apartment of Jerry, you stare in shock. It’s truly horrific, emphasized by the darker look of the scene, along with things that are actually there that Jerry omits entirely in his off-the-pills self. This is where we see all of the storage containers containing Fiona’s remains, everything inside looking outdated and destroyed, and the amount of dog and cat shit everywhere.

Now that is a serial killer’s apartment!

Seeing Lisa’s jaw drop once she realizes she made the biggest mistake of her life will have your eyes glued to the screen. When she cries, “I wanna go home”, all the air leaves the room. Jerry starts his descent, even though he truly doesn’t want to. It’s kind of like the little game he asked Fiona to play before he killed the deer. He tells her the three angels that had names and asks her who the fourth one was. Once he hits the deer and cuts its throat, he tells her it was the “fallen angel” Lucifer. In a way, you could call Jerry a fallen angel himself.

The third act involving the psychiatrist is awesome and the final sequence, where Jerry goes through his final in-head argument is incredible. This leads to an ending that can be interpreted in a thousand different ways with one of the catchiest songs you’ll hear this year.

Despite the lack of recognition from mainstream audiences, The Voices is an off-kilter black comedy that is downright unforgettable. Powered by an incredible Ryan Reynolds who shows us the mental suffering and aguish of a man that along with having the worst childhood imaginable, just wanted one person to give a damn about him. It’s a strange movie but entrancing to say the least. When you add in an always great Anna Kendrick, compelling character depth, and horror and slasher bits that cut deep, it becomes one hell of an experience. It’s not funny per say and the animal-talking sequences aren’t as entertaining as you’d think they would be, but when you learn more and more about Jerry, everything comes together to a satisfying, bizarre, and bitter conclusion.

Fun Fact: Ben Stiller was attached to star at one point.