SOUND OF MY VOICE
Starring Christopher Denham, Nicole Vicius and Brit Marling
Written by Zal Batmanglii and Brit Marling
Directed by Zal Batmanglii
Running time 85 min
MPAA Rating R
Selig Film Rating Cable
Science fiction films come in varying degrees. There are those monster flicks full of special effects with CGI imagery to those that barely exist in a world different than our own. One film that is an example of the latter is Another Earth, a 2011 independent film that starred Brit Marling. The young actress also wrote the film, another rarity this day and age. She once again stars and writes her next sci-fi vehicle Sound of My Voice.
The tale is of Peter (Christopher Denham) and Lorna (Nicole Vicius), a couple in both love and art. They decide to make a documentary film about cults and focus on a mysterious group that has a very hard to get a-hold of leader. After much work, they are accepted by the group and taken to see the head of the group, Maggie (Brit Marling).
Maggie claims to be from the future and has transported back to our time in order to warn people about the impending doom. She has convinced a small group of individuals that she is the real deal and they must prepare for future collapse of society. Lorna and Peter do not believe a word of it and secretly begin taping her and her claims.
Lorna is confronted by a government agent, wanting her to lead them to Maggie. It seems that Maggie is part of a larger conspiracy, a nefarious terror group. The government will do just about anything to take the woman in.
Peter begins to question his own assumptions of Maggie and may be falling for the woman. The more Peter gets to know Maggie, the more he begins to believe her story. This dichotomy between Peter and Lorna begins to tear the two apart. The entire exercise builds to a big twist that is not much of a surprise.
Brit Marling does a wonderful job as Maggie, our woman from the future. She plays her cards very close to the chest as the time traveler. She is not a perfect woman and never claims to be. She is just a woman from the future coming back to our time to be a help for the planet.
Neither Christopher Denham nor Nicole Vicius make much of an impression in Sound of My Voice. They are both pawns in a much larger trap that they never sense or see. But by being such small players, the actors never make much of what they are given. This is a showcase film for Brit Marling and the focus is on her, not the underlings.
The film is directed by Zal Batmanglii with a bit of a claustrophobic feel. While he captures some images here and there with a deft touch, most of the film is navel gazing to a painful degree. He never finds a convincing way to drive the film to its point and muddles before he gets to the point.
Sound of My Voice at 85 minutes still feels too long. It drags along and never delivers the knock-out punch that it purports to offer. It is just another art house flick that will generate more discussions than deserved.
