Playing Off-key: Satrapi’s English Language Debut a Grating Misfire

Iranian born director Marjane Satrapi, best known for her 2007 debut, Persepolis, and a 2011 follow-up, Chicken With Plums, breaks into the English language market with The Voices, a rather oddly concocted mixture of slapstick, black comedy, and grisly violence as it attempts to explore the point of view of a schizophrenic serial killer. Oh, and he’s played by Ryan Reynolds. While there are certainly enough elements to attract intriguing minds, especially for those with a humorous morbid streak, Michael Perry’s screenplay is only superficial at best, launching a series of grotesqueries at us with a heap of buttery antics on the side. While profane violence and guilty guffaws are certainly possible, though generally hard won, whether they be from more high (Coen Bros.) or low (John Waters) brow vantage points, here we have a rather sluggish and tonally awkward...