Review: In a World…

Lake Bell stars as the daughter of a revered movie trailer voiceover guy, a pompous arse (played by Fred Melamed) who went up in stature with the passing of the late, great Don LaFontaine. Bell is doing OK as an expert coach in accents and also an ADR dubber, but dreams of breaking into the thus far male-dominated world of movie trailer voiceovers. She’d like to be the first woman to utter LaFontaine’s infamous line ‘In a World…’. When an upcoming quadrilogy of YA Fiction adaptations is on the horizon, Bell sees this as her big opportunity. The title phrase hasn’t been used since LaFontaine’s death, but this upcoming series will apparently see its return. Meanwhile, her dad has always dissuaded her from joining the fold, and is mentoring a rival voiceover talent, played by Ken Marino. Alexandra Holden plays Melamed’s much younger bimbo girlfriend, Rob Corddry plays the husband of Bell’s sister, Geena Davis plays the big-time producer of the upcoming film franchise, and Jeff Garlin and Eva Longoria parody themselves, the latter needing Bell’s help with a cockney accent, the former as the host of the industry awards (And I could totally see Garlin being the host of such second or third-string awards).

 

Writer-director-star Lake Bell (whom you might know from “Boston Legal” or “No Strings Attached”) makes things very difficult for herself with this lame, unfunny 2013 comedy. The film is about a woman trying to break into the predominantly male world of movie trailer voiceovers, and specifically those with the immortal words ‘In a world…’ (Coined by the late, immortal Don LaFontaine, who is revered in the film. I always preferred Adolph Caesar’s blaxploitation trailer voiceovers myself). Why is this problematic, you ask? Oh, let me count the ways…

 

Let’s get the most petty flaw out of the way: How often do trailers come with voiceovers these days anyway, let alone with the phrase ‘In a world…’? Yes, it’s just a movie, but that thought kept nagging away at me throughout. I couldn’t think of the last film trailer I saw that had a voiceover, to be honest. But perhaps the situation is different in America, so fair enough, I’ll let that one slide, and at least the film explains that the title phrase was retired in honour of LaFontaine’s passing. However, this film concerns a character who wants to not only voice movie trailers, but be the first woman to use the holiest of movie trailer voiceover phrases ‘In a world’, to be resurrected. At some point during the writing of this film, Ms. Bell seems to have realised what you and I will immediately realise: That the likelihood of a woman being given the ‘In a world…’ assignments is very, very low, and there’s no real reason why except…it just doesn’t sound right most of the time (And I’m not endorsing that thought, by the way. It’s a stupid, stupid way of thinking. But it’s nonetheless the feeling most of us will have and history shows that women haven’t been given the gig. Can’t argue with that, sadly). So Bell tries to find a way around this by first having the initial choice pull out with a sore throat. Then the only way she can find of allowing her character to utter the phrase is…in a quadrilogy of Young Adult lit adaptations. Chick fare, basically. Way to half-arse your female empowerment there, Lake. We all know she’s compromised the point she sets out to make at the beginning of the film (It’s in the title!), and the whole thing crumbles as a result. I mean, OK you can do that quadrilogy. Then what? The thing is, if she didn’t aim for the ‘In a world…’ gig, the film would’ve worked a bit better. We all know women can do trailer voiceovers, and damn well should do them. Just not this kind. It’s such a simple thing to correct, and the bizarre thing is that Bell has her character’s father pretty much point out the problem 10 minutes into the film.

 

I also don’t think that Bell should’ve cast herself in the role. Let’s face it, the only reason she’s playing it is because she wrote, directed and produced it. She’s clearly not a voiceover talent. When she tries to do the film trailer voice herself, she sounds like a woman trying to sound like a guy. At least cast a woman with an already masculine-sounding voice, for chrissakes if that’s what you’re aiming for. At one point, Bell says ‘Women should sound like women’. WHAT? You’re helping to ruin the point of your own damn movie, you idiot! Meanwhile, her character is meant to be a master of accents, and tries to teach Eva Longoria how to do a cockney accent. Problem? Bell’s cockney accent isn’t much better than Longoria’s supposedly comically bad one. The joke is therefore completely botched.

 

Sorry, but this film is a complete failure. It’s a stupid and misguided film with a thin storyline, and the only funny joke is the dad’s douchy license plate: ANUNC8. As the dad, Fred Melamed (apparently a stage-trained actor turned voiceover talent on TV, especially sports and commercials) is pretty good, though I was surprised Bell didn’t hire actors well-known for their voices in roles here (Brian Blessed, Morgan Freeman, Christopher Lee, Michael Shannon, Michael Ironside etc.) Otherwise the likely only audience here are Lake Bell fans, and people with first and last names that are ‘things’. For me, Bell’s personality isn’t able to hide the lack of story or character depth, nor the fact that I didn’t believe in any of it (even for a comedy). Pathetic waste of Geena Davis, too. Oh, and Ms. Bell, you should probably know that trailers for new movies don’t announce themselves as the first in a quadrilogy when the first film hasn’t even been released yet. That’s a cock-up right there. The film was popular at Sundance and has its fans, so don’t take my word for it, but it does suck.

 

Rating: D