Film Review: Brit Marling Speaks Volumes in ‘Sound of My Voice’

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CHICAGO – Fresh off her Spirit Award nominated film “Another Earth,” the up-and-coming filmmaker Brit Marling again writes and stars in “Sound of My Voice,” portraying another mysterious and mood-inducing character. The future of humanity is the basis for this simple but vivid narrative.

Rating: 4.0/5.0

This is not as good as “Another Earth,” but that’s not to say it isn’t worth experiencing. It has the feel of a chilling “Twilight Zone” episode, establishing a certain aura about Marling’s character, then unraveling her environment by exposing elements that may or may not pertain to the overall thesis. This film is more about emotion, trust and whether Maggie’s story is to be believed, and leaves those themes hanging in the air at the conclusion, to ponder within our own inherent morality.

Brit Marling is a woman named Maggie, and she is holed up in a nondescript suburban tract home. A fledgling reporter named Peter (Christopher Denham) gets wind of her whereabouts, and seeks to expose the cult she has gathered in the home. To get to her requires a significant outreach, Peter and his girlfriend Lorna (Nicole Vicius) go undercover as members of the cult, which involves sterile washings, having nothing on their person when entering the house and participation in indoctrination sessions. According to Maggie, she has traveled from a post-apocalyptic future and will lead the cult members through the impending disaster.

The sessions deal with tests of loyalty, with Peter and Lorna getting more pulled in by the gentle yet strident quality of Maggie’s tenor. The couple have issues from their younger days – Peter with his mother and Lorna with her party life – and both get vulnerably exposed by Maggie’s sessions. When a government agent (Davenia McFadden) reaches out to Lorna to infiltrate the cult even further, the truth that is revealed will affect everybody.

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Sound of My Voice”

Brit Marling (Maggie) Advises the Faithful in ‘Sound of My Voice’ Photo credit: Fox Searchlight Pictures

Continue reading for Patrick McDonald’s full review of “Sound of My Voice”