Lake Bell is good at writing people. The talented actress (“It’s Complicated,” “Children’s Hospital”) has littered her writing/directing debut, “In a World,” with living characters that make the film an ease to watch.
Part of this success is that Bell was smart enough to write for good people. Rob Corddry, Ken Marino, Demetri Martin, Nick Offerman and Bell herself (among many others) are all hilarious actors known for their comedy chops. Luckily, Bell gives most of them something more substantial to chew on than just being funny people and “In a World” has a little more dramatic kick than you’d suspect.
While Bell’s story stretches thin in places, there is nuance here. Martin and Bell share a sweet courtship and Corddry gets to deal with a wife (the wonderful Michaela Watkins) who may stray into the arms of a charming Irish man. While the majority of the cast gives the film its life, Fred Melamed as Carol’s father has some very poor streaks in his performance. There are a couple of scenes where he comes off as just plain amateurish in his delivery and Bell could (and should) have asked for another take. The moments distract and do not belong in this film. While slight in fits and parts, Bell’s movie is interesting and engaging enough to recommend. A rooted first film that makes me excited for her future as a filmmaker.
Bell’s lack of experience behind the camera does peak out in spots. Motivations aren’t always clear and the final act at the Golden Trailer Awards (an actual award show that honors achievement in Trailer construction!) is clunky and ends the story with a “ho-hum”.
It all takes place in a world where voice over work is an all-encompassing element to life. It’s a small, niche community in Los Angeles where only a hand full of performers get all the work, none of them more famous than Don LaFontaine. The real life voice over master known for his deep and gravelly delivery of “In a World…” actually died in 2008 and Bell’s movie focuses on the competition to become the next one to utter the famous lines from so many trailers.
Bell plays Carol, a struggling young 30-some such who gets kicked out of her father’s “bachelor pad” so that his late 20-some such can move in for carnal reasons. Carol’s father is Sam (Melamed), the no. 2 VO man in LA who decides to mentor up and coming vocal hot shot Gustav (Ken Marino) and help young Gustav win an new “In a World” trailer for the hugely popular YA quadrilogy “The Amazon Games”.
But Carol is an aspiring VO artist herself. But the tiny group of performers in this little community are all men and sexist ones at that. Especially her douche-like father. Never a woman to narrate a commercial. Too funny. And it would be impossibility for her to utter the immortal words for the stupid “Amazon Whatever” movie… but in a world where women are empowered to be able to talk over a bunch of clips from a movie, anything might happen.