Sound of My Voice Review

Rated R (Language including some Sexual References, and Brief Drug Use)

Running Time: 1 Hour & 25 Minutes

Cast-

Brit Marling-Maggie

Christopher Denham-Peter Aitken

Nicole Vicius-Lorna Michaelson

Davenia McFadden-Carol Briggs

Richard Wharton-Klaus

Kandice Stroh-Joanne

Christy Meyers-Mel

Alvin Lam-Lam

Constance Wu-Christine

Matthew Carey-Lyle

Jacob Price-PJ

David Haley-O'Shea

Avery Kristen Pohl-Abigail Pritchett

Hannah Johnson-Narrator

Directed by Zal Batmanglij

Brit Marling as enigmatic cult leader Maggie in "Sound of My Voice."

Whenever I was off from elementary school during the summer, my grandmother would always send me to an independently-run learning center near where I lived to keep me from being unproductive at home. There was a kid there approximately my age whose name I cannot recall this instant but what made him unusual was his compulsive need to suck his thumb. I do not know why he did it because I never bothered to ask nor did I care at the time but the other children unsurprisingly shunned him. The people who ran the center tried to break his habit with little success but something curious happened one day. This kid brought in his collection of Spider-Man trading cards (the 1995 Fleer Ultra Premiere set if you were wondering) and everyone suddenly became his friend just for that day. Every person has a desire to belong since it is human nature after all. However, this can easily be exploited by someone who is both charismatic and manipulative. The most infamous example would be serial killer Charles Manson, who instructed the members of his doomsday cult to commit a series of bloody murders in late-1960’s California. People are never coerced to join cults and often seek them out on their own volition because they want to belong in a group in which they matter. After making waves at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival, first-time director Zal Batmanglij and writer Brit Marling’s “Sound of My Voice” finally arrives in theaters in limited release. Despite its almost non-existent production budget and vague plot that leaves more questions than answers, “Sound of My Voice” remains a thought-provoking experience and stands as a shining example of what can be accomplished with only an idea and someone committed enough to follow it through. 

A young couple drives to a house at night in an anonymous Los Angeles neighborhood where they are greeted by a large man. The two are instructed to cleanse themselves in the shower and change into matching white tunics before being driven to another location while blind-folded. The couple meets a gray-haired man with glasses (Richard Wharton) and engages in a complex secret handshake with him before being allowed into the basement to join the rest of the new members waiting there. The gray-haired man asks everyone to kneel when a young woman carrying an oxygen tank enters the sparse room. The woman is named Maggie (Brit Marling) who reveals that she is a time traveler from the year 2054 where society has collapsed due to an unnamed civil war and the loss of technology. She has journeyed forty years back into the past in order to prepare a chosen few for the coming calamity and lead them to a supposed salvation. Peter Aitken (Christopher Denham) and Lorna Michaelson (Nicole Vicius), the couple in the beginning of the film, turn out to be aspiring documentary filmmakers who have infiltrated Maggie’s burgeoning cult in order to expose her as a fraud. However, they soon find their relationship strained to the breaking point as Maggie and her cult forces them to confront harsh truths about themselves and the world they currently live in. 

“Sound of My Voice” does not invite the most positive initial reception given its grimy, heavily aliased scenes and sparse locations but its non-existent production budget proves to be an advantage because it gives the film a grounded realism despite its ridiculous premise. The film does not go out of its way to develop the characters besides a short narration revealing that Peter is a substitute teacher at an all-girls school and that he lost his mother to cancer when he was twelve because she belonged to a cult that didn’t believe in modern medicine while Lorna is a reformed Hollywood party girl. Both are motivated to make a documentary on Maggie’s cult because they want to do something meaningful with their lives. Divided into ten chapters, “Sound of My Voice” has limited mass appeal because it is a film that provides more questions than answers. Is Maggie really a time traveler from the future or is she just a clever con artist who is using ‘her traditionally feminine gift of emotional insight to bring her followers to their knees’ (Mary Pols, Time Magazine)? There’s this amazing scene where all the members of her cult are sitting in a circle with an apple in their hand, a not-so-subtle symbol of the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil in the Garden of Eden. Each takes a bite out of the apple but Maggie explains that they are weak for eating the fruit because it represents how they are being deceived with illusions of luxury and ‘intellectual bullsh*t’ by modern society. Things take a grotesque turn when one of the members vomits up the apple, prompting everyone to do the same except Peter. Maggie confronts him about his doubts in this intense exchange that brings him to tears (Lorna later calls it an ‘emotional orgasm’ in a tone that drips with admiration and jealousy), insisting that Peter is unable to fully give himself to her due to his personal demons of maternal abandonment and sexual abuse. Whether this is true or not is never explicitly revealed but it speaks of the power of indoctrination to the point where you may start believing it yourself. The film also emphasizes Maggie’s attractiveness, with Lorna accusing Peter of succumbing to her beauty in a heated exchange where he seriously contemplates kidnapping a little girl (Avery Kristen Pohl) at his school in order to prove his loyalty. This leads to a rather abrupt ending where nothing is ultimately resolved and the audience is left with questions about the connection the little girl has to Maggie and the motivations of a heavyset government official (Davenia McFadden) seeking to apprehend the cult leader. The relationship between Peter and Lorna is also left up in the air but Batmanglij leaves a number of hints to allow us to draw our own conclusions. “Sound of My Voice” is ultimately a question of faith, from both the characters and the audience, and how far you are willing to go in order to achieve a place where you belong. 

One of the reasons the film is so riveting to watch is Brit Marling, who also serves as co-writer and starred in last summer’s equally intriguing “Another Earth.” Clad in a white robe, Marling’s hypnotic Maggie is both angelic and commanding, the kind of cult leader that exudes a soothing motherly quality but also a hidden manipulative dark side. Marling has already become one of my favorite actresses despite having only two films under her belt and I admire her for taking the chance of writing her own roles even if it means earning less and staying on the fringes of mainstream Hollywood. Christopher Denham and Nicole Vicius may be unknown to general audiences but each excel in their respective roles, with Denham’s Peter struggling with his beliefs under his controlled demeanor while Vicius’s Lorna remains skeptical of Maggie, but whether it stems from jealousy or not is the real question. Their relationship, particularly in how Denham and Vicius interact with each other, is believable and adds to the sense of realism in the film. 

Premiering at the 2011 Sundance Film Festival back in January, “Sound of My Voice” is finally in limited release since April 27, 2012 and has received largely positive reviews with 81% on Rotten Tomatoes. It is currently playing at the Landmark Sunshine Cinema in New York City. Many critics have praised Marling’s performance and the film’s themes but some found it frustratingly vague, a sentiment that was shared by the audience that I saw it with. Many even started to laugh as the film progressed and I honestly wanted to tell them all to shut up…but I digress. Despite its limited mass appeal, I still highly recommend the film but it is of utmost importance that you keep an open mind as it demands you to form your own interpretations of what is happening. Brit Marling is now two-for-two and I cannot wait to see “The East” later this year which is also directed by Batmanglij. You won’t find answers in “Sound of My Voice” but what you will find is an intense and riveting drama. Make sure to see this film first before the avalanche of big-budget summer blockbusters arrives to smother us all.

Final Rating: 4.5 out of 5

“To see her is to believe her.”