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Monday, June 23, 2014

In a World (2013)

This is an enjoyable movie that had a couple of nice subtexts to go along with the text.  The story involves Sam (played by Fred Melamud), a gifted voice over artist who is employed to do trailers for movies.  He is very self-absorbed, but acknowledges that while he has an excellent voice, he was not the best voice.  His narcissism makes him one of the worst kinds of parents--one who cannot tolerate any sort of success in his offspring.  His daughter Dani has chosen the easiest of paths--she is a conierge in a high end hotel, catering to the whims of the rich and famous.  She dodges any direct competition with dad but she is miserable, as evidenced by her distracted interactions with her husband Mel, who adores her.  Carol (played by Lake Bell, who wrote and directed the movie) is another story.  She has a great voice for trailers, but the industry is dominated by men--which Sam does not bemoan.  In fact he encourages her to pursue a dead end nitch part of the business (foreign accent coach, an arena designed to keep her "down on the farm" in the voice industry). 

Carol is more or less content with that, but when the opportunity to do some voice over work comes up, she grabs it and has some success.  Which makes Sam crazy rather than happy--he immediately wants to squash her down, to remain on top himself.  There are a couple of sweet threads of romantic comedy and romantic drama that run through the movie, each of which is well handled, and overall the movie is a good one.  Not too deep but with something to think about.


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