In A World... (2013)

When I went to see this film the cinema had overbooked the screening and left me sitting on a hard bar-stool at the back, holding a beer and a grudge against the girl at the till. It was not the best start to the evening so my expectations of In A World... were suitably corrupted: I had a feeling it was going to be a disappointment. What a joy it was to be proven wrong.


The pressures and politics of the voice-over industry are by no means conventional entry points for the average romcom. But then again, this is not what you could call an average romcom. Written, directed and led on screen by Lake Bell, the scene stealer from No Strings Attached and It's Complicated, this film toys with bigger ideas about sexism in the professional world and family dysfunction, whilst managing to garner more than a fair few laughs at the same time. In fact, it might be the most I've laughed at the cinema in a while. Bell's character is so charmingly inept and her writing so wisely positioned on the right side of crude that the comedy flows easily, without having to rely on shock tactics for its effects.

Carol Solomon (Bell) is the daughter of the legendary voice-over artist Sam Soto (Fred Melamed), whose success has largely stilted his child's career in the same industry. Told that Hollywood does not crave 'a female sound,' Carol has turned to the less glamorous profession of vocal coaching. This largely involves helping Eva Longoria improve her appalling cockney accent in what appears to be an Eastenders guest role. Yet things might be about to change for Carol as the competition to voice the trailer of the latest blockbuster trilogy 'The Amazon Games' opens up. Her rivals include the slick and sleazy Gustav Warner (Ken Marino), with whom she engages in a lacklustre and hilarious one night stand, and her own father. Meanwhile, she has to deal with the emotional fallout from her sister Dani's crumbling marriage and the tentative advances of her sweet colleague Louis (Demetri Martin).

There are a lot of plot strands in this film but Bell mostly manages to steer it through with aplomb. We could have done without the sideline of Dani's affair, mainly because the followthrough feels rushed and slightly forced. On the other hand, there are some great cameos from actors including Geena Davis and Cameron Diaz, and the air of chaos suits Bell's haphazard character perfectly. In A World... is a quirky and surprising hit: it made up for my discomfort on the bar-stool.