Customer Reviews

Voices From a Locked Room [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is an engrossing film based upon a true story. Music critic, Phillip Heseltine, savages Peter Warlock's musical compositions, though they are the toast of London. His scathing reviews prompt Peter Warlock to write letters to the newspaper in an effort to have it curb Heseltine's excesses with regard to his music. In the meantime, Heseltine gives a glowing review to American chanteuse, Lily Boston, with whom he falls passionately in love.

As their romance heats up, Heseltine gets a threatening letter from Warlock, after another one of Heseltine's scathing music reviews is published. Lily, concerned and wanting to avert any disaster between the two, hunts down and confronts Peter Warlock, only to be shocked when she meets him and realizes that there is a strange and bitter struggle taking place of which she was previously unaware.

This is an intriguing psychological thriller that will keep the viewer riveted. The film is notable for the bravura performance by Jeremy Northam, as he attempts to bridge the synapse between genius and madness. He is positively brilliant and alone worth the price of the film. Bravo!

Jeremy Northam has demonstrated that not only can he carry a picture, he will often be the best thing about it, as evidenced by this film. His acting is flawless and riveting, turning what could've been a masterpiece theatre weepie into a facinating story based on the true life saga of Peter Warlock. The young woman is replaceable, altho she holds her pluck in some scenes. I don't know how I missed this at my local art house, but am glad to own it and if you're a Northam fan, will be glad you do, too. He is turning into the Olivier of our time, performance after performance. Now if only he and Julienne Moore would get together:> - m.

An absolutely wonderful film. Jeremy Northam once again proves why he is one of the best actors working today. It's too bad his work doesn't get enough attention. This film is the true story, and will keep you riveted to the screen. The entire cast is solid as a whole, but Northam steals the show with his portrayal of Phillip Heseltine. The film also features some of the most haunting music I've heard onscreen in quite some time. This is definitly a film you must see.

This movie had me so engrossed that I researched quite a bit about Philip Heseltine and Peter Warlock - whose relationship is the basis of the story - and discovered that most of the film's details were fabricated. Not to say that the true story wasn't intriguing in itself (very mysterious actually), but they had little in common with the screenplay.

However, taken as an individual work of art, the film was brilliantly done, and the music hauntingly beautiful (I'm still waiting for a soundtrack release). Jeremy Northam was sleek and chaotic, charming and gruff, gentile and maniacal - ingenious wouldn't be too strong a word in this instance. The plot spoiler comes fairly early, but it becomes quickly clear that this movie was made to showcase Jeremy's exceptional acting talent.

I highly recommend "Voices" to any and every Northam fan or to anyone who loves the intrigue of a good psychodrama, but would advise history buffs to rethink watching it or the inaccuracies may ruin it for you.

I picked this movie off the shelf not knowing what to expect at all, but I was pleasantly surprised by it. The movie drags slightly at the beginning, but quickly picks up pace, and turns into an extremely captivating and moving thriller. Jeremy Northam gives one of his best performences(and he's always good). The rest of the cast also deliver strong preformances. You will find yourself captivated not only during the film, but after.

I admit that the "love triangle" wore a bit thin in this movie, but otherwise it was a superlative piece of film-making. The music is excellent and would be quite enough to recommend this work. However, Northam's realistic portrayal of an actual "Jeckyll & Hyde" situation cannot be discounted as one of the films strongest features. An excellent thriller, in which one comes to sympathize with Heseltine/Warlock as "they" move forward towards the inevitable tragic end of two personalities inhabiting the same body, each hellbent on destroying the other. Well worth viewing.

This movie never had a wide theatrical release in the U.S., rather it only played at film festivals where it received rave reviews. Jeremy Northam's performance as composer Peter Warlock and music critic Philip Heseltine earned him great reviews and notice from the casting director of "The Net", which began his climb to stardom.

The movie is loosely based on the life of British composer Peter Warlock and his arch nemisis, music critic Philip Heseltine. In addition to an interesting story and wonderful performances, the viewer is treated to great classical music. The only disappointment in the movie is the fabricated love triangle between Heseltine, Warlock, and Heseltine's girlfriend (so forgettable, I can't remember her name).

This was a role for Jeremy Northam with some meat on it. Excellent portrayals by the actors in this film. Music was beautiful.

A real sleeper--I watched as 3 well-educated-looking people looked at the sleeve in the video store, and put it back down without rental. But this a is great psychological thriller, suspenseful and rather heart-rending. Northam does a great job; Tushka Bergen is solid but unmemorable. Overall, a nice primer in the English folk-song/classic revivalist scene (Frederick Delius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, et alia), but the focus is on the fictionalized love, ah, triangle, and the inevitably tragic end. Give it a try!

The one thing most reviewers have agreed on is that Jeremy Northam's performance is impressive, and I agree. Every other aspect of the film disappointed me. I expected a film about an artist to be aimed at an audience interested in the art and its genesis (think "Pollock" or "Rembrandt", two fine examples of artist biography), but this film was conceived as a schlock psycho-thriller. Most of what I learned about Warlock's music, or what people may have thought about it, came in the form of of negative newspaper reviews read aloud as part of the dialogue, and these were written by...Philip Heseltine! I have to wonder whether these reviews are as fictional as the rest of the story.

One sequence exemplifies a general disregard for reality and a casual hyperbole: Heseltine, in Warlock mode, attacks a friend on the topdeck of his yacht, finally whacking him in the head with a a heavy tool and sending him tumbling unconscious into the water. We watch with Heseltine as the victim, face down and motionless, drifts slowly away. The scene changes: It is the next morning, and the victim is seated in a comfy chair getting a bump on his head bandaged. Welcome to Looney Toons, folks.

I did enjoy the early scene in a radio studio, instantly spotting "Sir Thomas Beecham" directing the orchestra. The made-up actor playing this small role looked exactly like the real Sir Thomas, and I found myself grateful for attention to this small detail. However, the film did not dwell much on musical matters, and I learned little about the musical aesthetic or motives of Warlock or his contemporaries.