As black comedies go you couldn’t get any stranger than this film, it’s totally insane but you can’t help but be intrigued throughout. How many movies are out there about serial killer’s that you actually feel yourself rooting for the killer? That’s exactly what Ryan Reynolds makes you feel every step of the way with Jerry.
The story goes like this, Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is a very lovable man who, unfortunately, has a bit of a mental health issue, he works at a bathtub factory, he just wants to be loved so does whatever it takes to get along with his co-workers, especially Fiona (Gemma Arterton) and Lisa (Anna Kendrick) from accounts. Outside of work all Jerry has is his pet cat, Mr. Whiskers, and loyal dog Bosco. The three of them hang out, watch TV and discuss the day’s events. When one night he accidentally kills Fiona, Jerry is quick to cover his tracks, under the strict advice of the evil yet very funny Mr. Whiskers. After taking a shine to Lisa and striking up a relationship it’s not long before this goes a bit tits up for him too. Despite Bosco trying to keep Jerry on the straight and narrow, Mr. Whiskers seems to be the loudest voice in Jerry’s head and Jerry’s situation just goes from bad to a hell of a lot worse with very little hope to look forward to.
The whole storyline is extremely grim, but pairing it with humour, romance and violence makes it a whole lot easier to swallow and when you add a talking Cat and Dog into the mix you know this should be a recipe for an enjoyable film. One character you will definitely fall in love with is Mr. Whiskers, even you cat haters, as quite frankly this just goes to prove cats are evil creatures. He’s sarcastic, funny and whoever decided to give him a Scottish accent basically put the icing on the cake. He pretty much steals the show.
Tackling the mental health issue is never going to be easy, but this outing does it well, we get to witness Jerry’s back story and can understand even though extremely volatile, he’s just a lonely, vulnerable man scared of being abandoned, you can’t help but feel an enormous amount of sympathy for him, Even if he has a sick obsession with chopping up his victims, keeping the body parts in Tupperware and the severed heads in the fridge.
Who do we have to thank for this odd-ball outing? that would be Iranian Director Marjane Satrap, best known for Persepolis, her adaptation of her own graphic novel. Even though this wasn’t written by her, in a recent interview with Flavourmag she discussed that she basically had to create the visuals from scratch as this film is quite like nothing we’ve ever seen before.
Apart from the Cat, another stand out performance comes from Reynolds, this could very well be the defining role of his career to show that he is just not a pretty face, yes we know he can deliver a comical line or two but his portrayal of Jerry and his issues was pretty flawless, it’s probably one of his best performances to date. It’s completely obvious that Satrap and Reynolds make a great team.
Quirky, Sad, Comical and gory The Voices will leave you totally dazed and confused (make sure you stay till the end as there is an extremely surreal dance scene from the cast) but as depraved dark and warped comedies go it certainly is enjoyable.