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Sound of My Voice

In certain scenes, you can practically see director Zal Matmanglij in the background, begging for you to compare his film to Sean Durkin's. Now, I am aware that Sound of my Voice was shot around the same time as Marlene, which means that neither influenced each other in any way, but they are stylistically so similar that you cannot say that the two films are worthy of comparison simply because they are both about cults. Such a circumstance is unfortunate, because not only does Sound of My Voice look worse than it is when compared to Marlene, but the aspects of the film that invite such a comparison are the worst parts of it. The story of Voice is an intriguing one that is well told, but it wastes so much time preening and dancing around its own story that it never is able to go past “intriguing” and into the territory of “genuinely good.”

It is more likely that, rather than trying to imitate a film he had not yet seen (unless he's from the future... whoa), Matmanglij was simply using the same stylistic tricks that Durkin used, relying on handheld camerawork and natural lighting as a way to make his film seem more realistic and engaging. Sadly, this was a terrible choice, because that is not the kind of film that Sound of My Voice is. This is not a realistic, gritty drama built around a mystery. Rather, this is a mystery, a high concept one that should have its foot pushing down on the gas pedal from the opening frame. Instead, it takes its sweet time warming up as a way to build the intrigue, but ends up stuck in neutral for far too long.

Sound of My Voice is not a realistic film, but rather a Hollywood crime drama masquerading as indie. You could picture the story being devised in the mind of John Grisham, but for some reason it is being told as if it were more suited to, well, Sean Durkin. There is suspense in this story. There is drama and intrigue and double crosses and impossibly attractive leads. There is nothing wrong with any of that as long as the people telling the story are willing to embrace that that's what the story is. Marlene was not that kind of story. That was a character study that built its suspense brick by brick, because the secret was that there was no secret, that everything was as horrible as we would expect. Sound of My Voice is a high-concept story that twists and turns, and if the film had embraced that story, rather than slow it down as much as possible, it would have been much more effective.

It certainly doesn't help that the characters in Sound of My Voice are not just unlikeable, but uninteresting. While Martha was reserved, Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius play Peter and Lorna as ostentatiously emotional as possible, which gets old fast. Both characters are built around complex backstories which are interesting out of context, but Lorna's is irrelevant (except to explain why such a gorgeous woman wants to make documentaries), and Peter's has so much importance placed on it, but he is so obnoxious, and she is so bland, that their emotional turmoil drags down the movie. I understand that his traumatic background drives his actions throughout the film, but had he been less aggressive as a character it would have made him more interesting.

In the second half of the film the story kicks into a higher gear, which makes it actually quite compelling as a drama and a mystery, but very little of that is due to the emotional journey of the character. When the plot focuses on the truth behind Maggie, this film's enigmatic, charismatic cult leader, the results are fascinating. Brit Marling is very good at playing understated emotions, finding an interesting balance between Jennifer Lawrence's stoicism and Greta Gerwig's flightiness in the pantheon of indie blondes. I wish she had made some stronger choices with her character, but if the only alternative to her reserved stares is Christopher Denham's outbursts of outrageousness, I will happily take the former any day.

There were parts of Sound of My Voice that were effective, and had Matmanglij understood what made those parts work so well, and used those same tactics for the entire film, it might have been a very good movie. Unfortunately, most of his stylistic choices were completely wrong for the film, and as a result the final product is at best inconsistent, and overall disappointing.

So Which Was Better?

It is not fair to compare these two films based on the type of stories they are telling. While both are about cults, the narrative structures of the two films are very different, and it is impossible to say which story is itself inherently better. The chasm in quality between Sound of My Voice and Martha Marcy May Marlene comes not from the story itself, but in the way that story is told, by the quality of the direction and the acting. Sean Durkin understand exactly how to tell his story for maximum dramatic effect, while Zal Batmanglij seemed to rely on the tricks he had seen other indie movies used to make their films work, and attempted to recreate those. If he had understood why his story was compelling he might have found a better way to tell it, and Sound of My Voice could have been even better than Martha Marcy May Marlene. Instead, Marlene shows us how to take an interesting concept and elevate it, while Voice is an example of how to tell a good story badly.

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