“….whether the general public chooses to acknowledge it or not, voice over matters.”
Movie industry are known to be dominated by men; directors, screen writers and many others. It’s also become a common knowledge that in every movie trailers, the voice overs were done by men. Sometimes women were picked simply because they represents, well, women. That common knowledge inspired Lake Bell to write and directed In A World… (2013). The words ‘In A World..’ itself were often associated to be narrated by the popular voice over of Don La Fontaine, the uttered words are legendary and makes us thrilled hearing it. As Gustav Warner (Ken Marino) said in the movie, when he hears it, he wanted to be a part of that world.
While many of us focus on stories and actors, and not to forget directors, we often forget the power of voice overs. Sometimes a movie needs a proper narration and voice over to help us understand a story, but too much can make us viewers feel less smart. But more importantly, a voice over needs also a soul and great intonation to hold a story. Every person have its own voice character and every narration of a script have different purpose. The voice over must able to deliver the purpose.
It must be hard for Carol Solomon (Lake Bell) to live in a shadow of his own father, Soto or Sam (Fred Melamed), a veteran of voice over and a legend after Don La Fontaine. Carol however, is not too stressed about being a 31-year-old and still lives with her father’s house, working as freelance vocal coach. But unfortunately his father is. He’s pushing Carol to be independent and start doing her work seriously by kicking her out of his place while his 30-year-old girlfriend, Jamie (Alexandra Holden) moves in with him. Can’t afford her own rent, Carol moves in with her older sister, Dani (Michaela Watkins) and her husband, Moe (Rob Coddry).
Carol suddenly got a job offer to do a movie trailer for a movie, Amazon Games, based on a popular quadrilogy teen novel. At the same time, Carol threatened Gustav’s position, who almost sure to be booked for the job. In his own party, Gustav find himself attracted to Carol, who gets along with his approaches. The flirtation continued to sleeping together, but without Carol’s desire the news quickly spread to the industry. His own father does not know that it was Carol who Gustav both like but also hate for stealing his big job. He encourage Gustav to ‘keep showing her who’s the king’. But when he does know, he give a cold reaction to Carol that makes her quite cross.
Aside from Gustav, a co-worker also have a crush on her and finally confess his feelings. Carol also witness her sister’s marriage crisis, when Moe find out another guy flirts with his wife and she responded. Dani and Carol also dislikes his father’s young girlfriend, Jamie, but though it’s awkward she’s trying hard to be their ‘new’ mother.
In a World… feels fresh and new, because it talks about something so essential from movies and commercials but people rarely aware of it, a voice over. Large part of it was because it was wrapped in a comedy genre, also have a likeable and goofy female lead. There’s always something to concern with a single 30-year-old female who still clings to her parents, but Carol doesn’t sweat the pity party. She’s an easy going and smart type who just goes with the flow. The dialogues were casual and natural, the actors have great chemistry together and the comedy sometimes felt awkward but still smart.
Of course, there’s this competition between a father and daughter that could soar but it chooses to be less dramatic. Actually, what makes In a World… different is that it has a potential to be more dramatic or more comical, but it stick to its root. It doesn’t linger or moves too fast, it’s just precise. Probably some other stories like love crushes and Dani’s marriage problems are just an additional story, but it doesn’t bother at all. I also enjoyed the sisters’ relationship and how Carol helps her sister’s problems.
You’ll appreciate more about voice over when you watch this film. It seems that this movie would be one of those underrated good movies of the year, but I like it. It’s still it’s an impressive debut by Lake Bell. I look forward for another movie by her and possibly if she’ll take more goofy roles like Carol. I actually have goosebumps when I hear her voice over in the movie trailer.
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