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By Marlow Stern
She shows a different side in The Voices, filmmaker Marjane Satrapi’s (Persepolis) impressive dark, dark comedy. The movie centers on Jerry (Ryan Reynolds), a mentally disturbed loner who, when he’s not working a menial job at a bathtub factory, speaks with his genial dog and evil cat (the animals talk back). Jerry seems like a just another troubled, lonely soul—that is, until he murders his crush (Gemma Arterton), the self-proclaimed “office hottie” from accounting. Kendrick plays Jenny, another gal who works in accounting and harbors a secret crush on the “mysterious” Jerry, who ignores her. Eventually, the timid Jenny works up the courage to ask Jerry out, and what’s meant to be another kill transforms into a surprisingly touching trip to the weirdo’s childhood home. It’s a tough tone to nail but Kendrick does, helping the film achieve the right balance of horror and romance. Later, when she pops by Jerry’s place to surprise him, Kendrick does something extraordinary, shifting from excited, smitten girlfriend to horrified witness to desperate prey in the blink of an eye.