1853. In A World… (2013)

Starring: Lake Bell, Fred Melamed, Michaela Watkins

Director: Lake Bell

Running Time: 93 mins

In A World… is an American film about a struggling voiceover artist who is given the opportunity to become the first woman to voiceover a major movie trailer, but must first compete against her own father and his protégé.

This is a pretty good film. Although it occasionally suffers from indie-comedy-itis by occasionally going overboard with its dramatic story, it’s a both funny and engaging story of a woman defying the odds, and yet doesn’t ever stray into cheesy or preachy territory, always keeping an uplifting story as down-to-earth as possible.

But before we get into that, let’s talk about what it arguably the best part of the film: the performances. In the lead role, Lake Bell is as effortlessly likable as always, showing her character’s strong determination as well as her heart of gold, making her a perfect hero that you can’t help but will on to do the seemingly impossible and break out into the mainstream of the voiceover world.

Alongside Bell are a good few supporting performances too. Fred Melamed is brilliant as the selfish and very jealous father to Lake Bell’s character, proving an excellent ‘villain’ for the story that makes his daughter’s rise even more uplifting, whilst a convincingly emotional turn from Michaela Watkins, who plays Bell’s sister, adds some of the best drama of all to the story.

Now, what impressed me most about this film was how it handled what could have been a painfully cheesy and generic story. Although I can’t say that it always manages to impress when centring on the love lives of the characters (in a way that indie comedies like this always seem to do), I can say that it’s a brilliant success when it comes to showing the rise of a woman in a very male-dominated industry.

Of course, there’s always something brilliantly tounge-in-cheek about centring on such an obscure industry or profession as movie trailer voiceovers, particularly when focused on in the style of a major sport or art form, but what’s really great about this film is how engrossing and entertaining it is to watch our main character prove her doubters wrong and do the impossible.

But don’t think that this is some sort of jingoistic feminist drama, because it couldn’t be further from that. While there is of course a look into how male-dominated industries function, the main reason that the character’s success is so wonderful to see is because of her relationship with her father, who believes that she can never be as good as him or his own protégé, and to see that overturned is really excellent.

It’s not a cheesy movie, but one that’s genuinely convincing and entertaining in its main story, and it still keeps its feet on the ground with a perfectly-written finale that I definitely won’t spoil for you. Directed excellently by Lake Bell and featuring great performances across the board, I really liked In A World…, and that’s why I’m going to give it a 7.3 overall.