Review 306: In a World...
Carol Salmon (Lake Bell) is an underachieving vocal coach motivated by her father Sam Soto's (Fred Melamed), the king of movie-trailer voice-overs nativity and cynicism to pursue her aspirations of becoming a voice-over star. Amidst pride, sexism and family dysfunction, she sets out to change the voice of a generation.
The plot reminded me a lot of Sydney Pollack's Tootsie, it's got the same sense of deception were we as the audience are in on the joke. In Tootsie, Dustin Hoffman dresses up as a woman and deceives the whole cast of the TV sitcom. In In a World... Carol Salmon gets the job of doing a voice over for a trailer and her father (who was competing against her) is unaware of what is going on, and we as an audience are just aching for the father to find out and see what his reaction is.
What really makes In a World... tick is it's intelligent writing which satirises the male dominated world of voice-over work. Lake Bell really takes into a world we don't really have much interest in and teaches a lot about voice-overs and what it's like to be working in that industry: It's themes of making the voiceover industry something of interest to a wide audience, bringing equality to that business and feminism are treated somehow in a comic way.
My only problem with the film is that the dialogue is too fast faced and as a result it's difficult to understand without subtitles.
Lake Bell's direction is precise, she really makes excellent use of the limit resources she has and the result is well made and smart movie. I also thought she was very good at getting the best out of her actors, she really makes her actors give great performances which I truly felt as I was watching this movie-That's good.
The cinematography is fantastic, the lighting is beautiful, the production design is superb, the humor is witty albeit too fast, the costumes are terrific, the score by Ryan Miller, it's well paced and the ending was superb.
The acting is just brilliant, Lake Bell charms in her directorial debut, like Dustin Hoffman in Tootsie, Carol Salmon is someone who is working in a society where women are not welcome to have major jobs, but she battles that system with wit and deadly deception.
Fred Melamed is terrific as Sam, Carol's father, he neglects his daughter and doesn't think to highly of her or her sister but boy is he in for a surprise.
Michela Watkins is also good in In a World... as Dani, Carol's sister, she portrays the caring and supportive sisterly type you'd expect a sister of her type to be but at the same time she has her own affairs going on.
Rob Corddry is also great as Moe Dani's partner, he provides light comic relief for the film and gives us some really good laughs with his trademark of eating loads of sandwiches. He is also one of the many people who supports Carol on her journey.
Ken Marino is terrifc and Gustav Warner, his position in the film is tricky, he's a foil for Carol as he also wants the job of doing the voice over but he also fancies her which puts him in a pretty fascinating place.
Also their are some great appearances from stars such as Eva Longoria and Geena Davis in one of her better performances in recent years. They don't really do much but Lake Bell's witty direction and screenplay make sure they make a lasting impact. Finally the rest of the cast is great.
I really look forward to what Lake Bell will direct next.
Please comment and subscribe, 4/5.
The Anonymous Critic.
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