The Voices, film review: Marjane Satrapi brings trademark cartoonish humour and surrealism to live-action American serial-killer movie

(15) Marjane Satrapi, 101 mins. Starring: Ryan Reynolds, Gemma Arterton, Anna Kendrick, Jacki Weaver

Gemma Arterton and Ryan Reynolds in ‘The Voices’

The Iranian director Marjane Satrapi (best known for her autobiographical graphic novel Persepolis, which she made into an animated film) brings her trademark cartoonish humour and surrealism to this live-action American serial-killer movie. Jerry (Ryan Reynolds) is the film's likeable but psychopathic hero, a shy guy with a dead-end job.

Whenever he stops taking his pills, he hears "voices" from his pet dog and cat. The cat, Mr Whiskers, tells him that killing is "better than sex" while the dog Bosco tries to convince him that he "has morals".

Gemma Arterton plays Fiona, the office "hottie", while Anna Kendrick is Lisa "from accounts". The film is gory, odd (with its scenes of talking animals and severed heads in fridges), horribly uneven but intermittently very funny in its own tasteless, grand-guignol fashion.