by Bennett Campbell Ferguson
If you saw Lake Bell’s
performance as a betrayed wife in “It’s Complicated” four years ago, you
doubtless gathered that she’s a skilled and sympathetic actress. What you probably didn’t realize is that she
is, in the best way possible, insane. In
the new comedy “In a World…,” Ms. Bell not only stars as a burgeoning voiceover
artist, but as the film’s writer and director, she suffuses the whole piece
with wild eccentricity. Indeed, by the
end of the film you feel as if you’ve taken a crash course in work, life,
dating, and to a certain degree, fashion design.
But I’m getting ahead of myself. What binds all of this craziness together is
Carol Soloman (Ms. Bell), a vocal coach whose career is running out of
momentum, a fact that seems to please her sexist, self-satisfied father (Fred Melamed). But Carol, with a knack for being in the
right place at the right time, gradually begins to make a name for herself
recording voiceovers for commercials, which makes her a front runner for the
job that has everyone in the industry buzzing: voicing the trailer for the
forthcoming YA trilogy (excuse me, quadrilogy)
“The Amazon Games.” Now, she’ll have to
face down a number of industry big shots (including her own father) in a battle
that becomes not only about Carol’s career, but about her having the chance to
inspire other women to become voiceover artists.
With its rhythms of failure and success, it’s easy to
imagine another director playing “In a World…” like a sports film, with a
disheartened Carol gradually finding the strength to achieve her dreams with a
few ups and downs along the way. But Ms.
Bell pursues a stranger and in some ways more enjoyable direction. For one thing, she makes Carol utterly
unflappable—even though she’s often unemployed and reduced to living with her
sister, she never seems concerned about her status or her future. What’s more, the film is not only concerned
with Carol’s journey, but with the lives of the myriad of characters around
her. From her tortured sister to her
lovelorn co-worker Louis (Demetri Martin), all of Carol’s friends and frenemies
receive their due screen time.
There’s a caveat to this strategy though. By focusing on so many disparate storylines,
the film pulls the plot away from Carol’s career as a voiceover artist. This may not seem problematic, but what was
so enticing about “In a World…” to begin with is that in the trailer it looked
like a hilarious peak into an ever present universe that we know little of but
secretly love. Trailer voiceover
taglines like, “This summer!” are a huge part of the movie-going experience and
I’d hoped that “In a World…” would riff hilariously on the process of creating
such iconic sounds. The romantic and
family complications that the film focuses on instead are interesting and often
very entertaining, but in some ways their familiar from other films.
Still, it seems like poor sportsmanship to criticize “In
a World…” for what it doesn’t do because what it does do is amiably wonderful.
In particular, the film is a terrific showcase for Ms. Bell. As Carol, she creates a character with a
hilariously one track mind, a woman who subtly slips her tape recorder out of
her purse whenever she hears an interesting voice or accent. Carol’s also a bit of a slob—she spends a lot
of the movie lying in bed and wearing overalls.
But that only makes her all the more charming which is why it’s a joy to
see her rocking out with Louis towards the film’s end, when the two spend a
long night doing karaoke and playing air hockey. It’s a surreal montage you don’t see coming,
but it feels so right that in its insanity, it seems completely and beautifully
perfect. With all its jokes about
gargling and (in once case)lemon water, “In a World…” is like that in itself—offbeat yet
wonderfully on the mark.
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