While there's sure to be those who find a kind of brilliant mixture of "uber-dark" comedy here it's simply hard to say more will than won't. Perhaps it's the fact that serial killing at the hand of a schizophrenic psychopath whose cat tells him to murder isn't, under any circumstance, funny.
The primary vehicle is the meant to be absurd voices from the "good and bad" inner-self as depicted as coming from Jerry's (Ryan Reynolds) cat, Mr. Whiskers, and dog, Bosco. This is how Jerry's mental illness is personified. And, yes, it could be funny but, it falls flat against the murdering which ensues. The movie builds Jerry into a person we want to believe doesn't want to kill because he's shown as likable and wanting to be a person with meaningful relationships who contributes to society. But, even with a sad sack back-story his character can't achieve any kind of sympathy to soften up the viewer to actually relax and laugh.
In the final analysis the comedy doesn't pull it's intended hat-trick of making the truly disturbing behavior funny as if it was forcing a kind of hard sale that a "bright" off-center crazed caricature of a killer was both arty and comedic. No sale here.
Ryan Reynolds needs a reboot alright as even with his solid performance (the writing is the problem) this is just a bad movie that reaches for Avant-Gardie dark comedy originality only to be disturbingly offensive. If there's something funny about a schizophrenic serial killer (the intended outcome?) The Voices never got there.
The primary vehicle is the meant to be absurd voices from the "good and bad" inner-self as depicted as coming from Jerry's (Ryan Reynolds) cat, Mr. Whiskers, and dog, Bosco. This is how Jerry's mental illness is personified. And, yes, it could be funny but, it falls flat against the murdering which ensues. The movie builds Jerry into a person we want to believe doesn't want to kill because he's shown as likable and wanting to be a person with meaningful relationships who contributes to society. But, even with a sad sack back-story his character can't achieve any kind of sympathy to soften up the viewer to actually relax and laugh.
In the final analysis the comedy doesn't pull it's intended hat-trick of making the truly disturbing behavior funny as if it was forcing a kind of hard sale that a "bright" off-center crazed caricature of a killer was both arty and comedic. No sale here.
Ryan Reynolds needs a reboot alright as even with his solid performance (the writing is the problem) this is just a bad movie that reaches for Avant-Gardie dark comedy originality only to be disturbingly offensive. If there's something funny about a schizophrenic serial killer (the intended outcome?) The Voices never got there.