Some Voices
**
Rated on a 4-star
scale
Screening venue: Cornerhouse (Manchester)
Released in the UK by Film Four on August 25, 2000; certificate 15; 101 minutes;
country of origin UK; aspect ratio 1.85:1
Directed by Simon Cellan Jones; produced
by Graham Broadbent, Damian Jones.
Written by Joe Penhall; based on his play.
Photographed by David Odd; edited by Ellen Pierce
Lewis.
CAST.....
Daniel Craig..... Ray
David Morrissey..... Pete
Kelly Macdonald..... Laura
Julie Graham..... Mandy
Peter McDonald..... Dave
Ray has dizzy spells. At random points in
conversations he becomes aggressive and incoherent. He often acts more childishly
than a woman scorned, bringing up old issues, using them as nonsensical backup
for anger. He can behave himself and carry on normal, even intelligent,
conversations -- you just don't know when he's going to fly off the handle.
He doesn't like taking his medication. It gives him the
shakes.
It is rare to see mental illness in cinema, rarer
still to get good portrayals, and some kind of miracle to get a character
like Ray, who is perhaps the most convincing schizophrenic character I've
ever seen in a movie. Psychologically disturbed people are all around us.
Most of us will at some point see loved ones drift somewhere away from total
sanity. And they aren't likely to be slapping themselves in the face or screaming
like Jim Carrey in "Me, Myself & Irene".
"I wanted the character to be as normal as possible
and the illness to creep up on him," says Daniel Craig, the star of
"Some Voices", whose work deserves an Oscar nomination. "My
aim was for people to see Ray as a normal person, albeit a bit strange, and
then to realise he is sick." Exactly right. The opening stretches of this
film are fascinating, as we see Ray come out of hospital, try to maintain
a meaningful relationship with his responsible brother Pete (David Morrissey),
and struggle in his ongoing attempt to balance his ups and
downs.
Then "Some Voices" becomes intent on disappointing
us. Its early scenes are character based, and since it has a great main
character, the potential is there for great cinema. Instead, Joe Penhall's
screenplay gets involved in the pointless particulars of a romance between
thirtysomething Ray and a younger women named Laura (Kelly Macdonald), boring
family histories, and various other frivolity. It all ends in a silly sentimental
dilemma involving a near miss with an explosion, reconciliation between siblings
and a lot of melodramatic speechmaking. We also get a perplexing scene in
a mental hospital that seems to have zero patients, only one orderly, and
facilities that make it look like the cushiest imaginable university halls
of residence.
Craig, as I've said, is terrific, but alongside
him, Kelly Macdonald reels off her lines with amateurish trepidation instead
of emotion. Everything she says comes out flat, in such unsure tones that
she sounds like she's asking questions. Watching her is akin to cringing
at a rehearsal for a high school play and finding that the gesture doesn't
aid catharsis. Daniel Morrissey, as Ray's brother, is left out on a limb
after his strong early moments -- the director doesn't know whether to make
him a main or side character, and so the actor doesn't know how to
perform.
"Some Voices" is a big letdown. For its duration
I kept thinking of how the plot of "The Verdict" was a perfect metaphor for
its protagonist's struggle with alcoholism; and other movies about sad characters
crossed my mind, like "Shine" and "The Conversation". Why does this one feel
the need to go into autopilot and plug a brilliantly conceived character
into soap opera?
COPYRIGHT© 2000 Ian
Waldron-Mantgani
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