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Some Voices (2000) 
 
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0218616/

English language with hard French subtitles.


Some Voices is a British 2000 film directed by Simon Cellan-Jones and adapted for the screen by Joe Penhall, from his own stage play (originally a theatre production for the Royal Court, London). It is the first feature film by Cellan-Jones, a renowned TV director respected for his work on the BAFTA-winning Our Friends in the North. The film was almost entirely shot on location in Shepherd's Bush, West London, where Cellan-Jones lives. The film has a running time of 101 minutes.

  Daniel Craig  ...  Ray  
  David Morrissey  ...  Pete  
  Kelly Macdonald  ...  Laura  
  Julie Graham  ...  Mandy  
  Peter McDonald  ...  Dave  
  Nicholas Palliser  ...  Ray's Friend  
  Huss Garbiya  ...  Man with Mobile  
  Edward Tudor-Pole  ...  Lighter Seller (as Edward Tudor Pole)  
  Ashley Walters  ...  Kitchen Hand  
  Gem Durham  ...  Cashier  
  Cate Fowler  ...  Benefits Agency Woman  

Before Daniel Craig became an action hero and international sex symbol he had a career as an actor.  In this film his caracter is released after years of mental healthcare. Ray (Craig) is put on medication and placed in the care of brother Pete (Morrissey), the owner of a café. Walking again through Shepherd's Bush, W London, is uncomfortable, but badgering Pete for a job in the kitchen should give Ray stability, while an encounter with Laura (MacDonald) may open new possibilities. Laura's attracted to Dave because he's direct to the point of foolhardiness, spontaneous and fun to be with. She senses, however, that he's not quite like anyone she's met before. Penhall's adaptation of his play remains an actors' showcase. Morrissey skilfully registers abiding filial love tested by simmering exasperation; MacDonald's adept at lippy on top, vulnerable underneath; and Craig's vibrant yet haunted expressiveness tells us everything needful about this doomed sweetheart. It's thus over-egging it somewhat when the whirling camera effects and freaky sound mix overstates the point that our man really is not well. 

'Some Voices' premiered in Directors' Fortnight at Cannes. It was nominated for the 'Golden Hitchcock' Award at the annual Dinard Festival of British Cinema in France. ('Billy Elliot' won the award that year). The first-time director was nominated for the Best Newcomer at the British Academy Awards.

Critics were divided about ‘Some Voices’. Channel 4 called it “one of the best British films of 2000” with the director’s vision of west London’s “tower blocks, dual-carriageways and crowded streets” mirroring the central character’s “gradual disintegration”.

Mark Wyman of the Film Review also recommended ‘Some Voices’ as a film “definitely worth seeing” which “showcases some terrific British talent”.

Conversely, Empire called the film, "claustrophobic and cornered” and claimed that it “probably brought the house down on stage, but on film, it's simply static".

Total Film also had doubts. “Perhaps it’s the quirky, jerky This Life camerawork or the dim, grainy film stock, but Some Voices never reaches out and grabs the audience, remaining a watch rather than an experience”. However, the director did “draw intelligent, effective turns from his cast – Daniel Craig and David Morrissey are excellent, while Kelly Macdonald delivers the kind of sweetly sexy performance she’s rapidly trade-marking”. Special mention was also made of one particular “brilliant effect”. As Ray, Daniel Craig’s central character, “stops taking his tablets, the strange staticky images start to dominate his vision, the odd sounds begin to blot out reality and, gradually, the gulf between the world he experiences and the one everyone else lives in widens disastrously. It’s a clever and mammothly effective technique, communicating not just the strangeness of what’s happening to Ray, but also the sheer terror of it”.

Time Out, on the other hand, described this “brilliant effect” as “over-egging it somewhat”. The “whirling camera effects and freaky sound mix overstates the point that our man really is not well”. Nevertheless, the Time Out reviewer is also complimentary about the acting. “Penhall's adaptation of his play remains an actors' showcase. Morrissey skillfully registers abiding filial love tested by simmering exasperation; MacDonald's adept at lippy on top, vulnerable underneath; and Craig's vibrant yet haunted expressiveness tells us everything needful about this doomed sweetheart”.

Peter Bradshaw in The Guardian and Peter Byrne in the Student BMJ (British Medical Journal) are much more unequivocal in their praise. Bradshaw calls the film “a serious, substantial, and compassionate movie which demands to be seen, not least for its outstanding performances from an excellent cast”. Byrne says that ‘Some Voices’ “works as a film, and a technically accomplished one at that”.

Both reviewers particularly commend the film’s avoidance of cliché. Bradshaw stresses that “nothing could be more tiresome and dishonest than shop worn RD Laing-style clichés about schizophrenia being a heightened visionary state which the western world crushes under the jackboot of its dull rationalist enlightenment. Such a proposition would not correspond to the actual experience of schizophrenia sufferers and their carers; in real life, schizophrenia can lead to a lifelong trial of stress and unhappiness, and Some Voices reflects this”. He also welcomes the fact that “the schizophrenic is not demonised as a potential criminal or as a care-in-the-community basket-case” and “Ray's essential humanity is transcribed with sympathy and warmth, and so is the patience and perseverance of Pete, who must shoulder most of the burden of schizophrenia's terrible mystery”. Byrne concurs. He writes that “the film is refreshing in its avoidance of the standard formulas. Gone are the psycho-killer, pathetic, or "crazy funny guy" stereotypes… There is no blaming, no mental illness as metaphor, no psychiatry bashing, and - although a romance lies at its core - there is none of the usual message that "love is better than tablets."