"it is imminently more watchable than one would initially think"

‘The voices made me do it’ is the old adage that is at the very core of Marjane Satrapi’s unusual black comedy.

Ryan Reynolds stars as Jerry, a shipping and packing worker in Milton who lives a life of solitude with his dog Bosco and cat Mr Whiskers with whom he has regular two way conversations.

When Jerry becomes romantically interested in work colleagues Fiona (Gemma Arterton) and Lisa (Anna Kendrick), he is soon overcome with psychopathic tendencies with his pets, other animals and, later on his victims, prompting him to murder.

While this doesn’t work entirely, it’s a film that works a lot better than it should, with a lot of the successes courtesy of Reynolds who manages to portray an unhinged Jerry well. Overtly, he is an upbeat, pleasant individual with -- what he believes -- outside influences driving him to murder.

Yet of course so much of what is happening is in Jerry’s mind and Satrapi brilliantly distorts viewpoints of the interior of his apartment (above a dis-used bowling alley) as a metaphor for Jerry’s overt view and internal reality.

Less successful are the unnecessary talking heads in the fridge that adorned the films dreadful poster and a final song and dance number that tries to reinstate the comical mood after the dark, if somewhat predictable, ending.

Overall it manages to play surprisingly well, but by no means is it a must-see. But given the fact it features live-action talking animals and bad movie veteran Gemma Arterton, it is imminently more watchable than one would initially think.