What I’m about to talk about is not typecasting. But we’ve all seen it. An actor or actress takes on a role and not too long after, they appear in another role that’s a bit like the previous role. But that’s not typecasting. Not really. Somebody somewhere saw something in one performance and thought that special something could be expanded in another. Tony Shalhoub played a man devastated by his wife’s death in Thir13en Ghosts. And showed odd quirkiness in other films like Men in Black and Galaxy Quest. He also played a funny, depressed cab driver in TV’s Wings. He got to show all of these in TV’s Monk, where he played a detective wracked by Obsessive Compulsive Disorder after the devastating death of his wife. I’m just saying I don’t think it’s a complete surprise to see Ryan Reynolds play Deadpool when he’s played a charming schizophrenic in a playfully dark horror comedy. The Voices is predictable. We all know that a schizophrenic going off their meds is a recipe for disaster. I watched The Voices because I wanted to gain perspective from a schizophrenic’s viewpoint: how they struggle with their condition, the world, and how to deal with their actions. The subject of mental illness is unsettling, and whacking at it with a knife or saw goes to a dark area that many don’t want to visit. Ryan Reynolds gives a good performance that has us cheering him on and yelling at Jerry the schizophrenic. In The Voices, Reynolds creates empathy with the audience for a person who does horrible things, and I’m sure that caught the eye of someone somewhere.
