Have you ever heard Julie Burchill talk? The ball-busting journalist sounds like a schoolgirl, which I mention only because this brilliant, funny romcom from the until-now obscure US writer/director/actress Lake Bell is about how men and women communicate. Not so much what they say, as the voice in which they say it. And Bell's revelation is that females (even high-achieving ones) are surprisingly likely to use a voice that suggests they're an ickle-wickle pushover.
The 30-year-old Carol (Bell) is still living at home with her dad Sam (Fred Melamed), a voiceover king who specialises in blockbuster trailers. Carol has tried to follow in his footsteps, but Hollywood’s finest don’t trust women to sell “big” movies, so now she mostly just does vocal coaching and wonders around collecting peculiar voices on tape.
But her dad’s had enough — he’s got a new (young) girlfriend and feels that grouchy Carol is cramping his style. So he throws her out (“I’m gonna support you by not supporting you”) and then she gets her first break. The studios might use her on the trailer for a new Hunger Games-style franchise. Her dad’s going to be over the moon. Or is he?
Urbane, wide-hipped and flagrantly hairy, Sam is such a joyous, darkly comic creation that you find yourself beaming whenever he appears. If this were a Woody Allen movie, he’d be a minor character, as would Carol (she looks like Katharine Ross and Barbra Streisand — Woody would never put such an “ordinary” face centre-stage). Yet the tense power battle between the pair dominates the big screen with ease.
The script manages to squeeze in two lovely subplots concerning romance, neither of which relies on a wedding to get us in a tizzy. (Movies aimed at women are duty-bound to contain a wedding, as Kristen Wiig will confirm.) There’s also a nice part for androgynous comedian Tig Notaro, and even a cameo from Cameron Diaz. Go check it out.
