Unreliable Voiceover: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

So Joe Suspect is explaining to the cops where he was last night. As he speaks, we get a [[Flash Back]] showing us the events.

 

Related to [[Rashomon Style]], except that instead of someone else's version of events clashing, it's the cold, unvarnished truth. Unlike [[Unreliable Narrator]], we're led to believe that the visuals tell us what really happened. Unless there's a [[Mind Screw]] going on.

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* There's something of an example of this (and a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]]) in one of the late first season episodes of ''[[Darker than Black]]''. Mao (a [[Body Snatcher]] Contractor in a cat's body) is trapped with several series antagonists and is narrating the beginning of the episode. While he narrates in a calm voice, talking about being a Contractor and thus rational enough to overcome fear, you see the cat shaking in terror, and when Mao talks about making a clever, rational choice, he... {{spoiler|meows. Apparently his brilliant idea was to pretend to be a normal cat and hope Amber had grabbed him out of [[Cuteness Proximity]], and hadn't heard him [[Talking Animal|talk]].}}

 

== Film ==

* The naive Forrest in ''[[Forrest Gump]]'' plays this trope straight. Played for humor (and sometimes for drama), you'll see Forrest describing the upstart Apple Computers as a fruit company; Charlie, the codename for the Vietcong, as some guy the Army was looking for; and in one scene, he describes Jenny's father as a "loving man, always kissing and touching his daughters." The line pretty much sums up the real truth of Jenny's situation.

* Don's narrative on how he became a Hollywood star in ''[[Singin' in the Rain|Singin in The Rain]]''. His words paint his journey as a smooth, refined and comfortable one. The series of flashbacks that accompanies them show that it was actually an arduous and often undignified struggle to the top.

{{quote|"Dignity, always dignity!"}}

* This was used early in the movie ''[[Cube]] 2: Hypercube''. One of the characters said he was a plumber, but his flashbacks showed he was actually a secret agent.

* Agent Smecker does this the other direction during the scene that leads up to the Il Duce shootout in ''[[The Boondock Saints]]''- he's an investigator and not a suspect, and describes what he concludes happens as we watch what really happens such as the moment when he pegs Rocco as a "real sicko" who wanted his victim to suffer—and he's on the floor getting choked out by the "victim" and begging for his life. He also gets wrong how many guys are present during the Il Duce shootout based on the [[Throw-Away Guns|number of guns]] at the scene, which it turns out were all used by one guy.

* ''[[Beowulf (film)|Beowulf]]'': Beowulf claims a bunch of sea monsters attacked him during the race with Breca. We ''do'' see him fighting said sea monsters, but when he claims another sea monster dragged him down under the water, it's actually a beautiful mermaid that he ends up "plunging his blade into."

* [[The Usual Suspects]] primarily uses [[Unreliable Narrator]], but the flashbacks are ''slightly'' closer to reality than the narration. Eg, his story involves a man named "Kobayashi", but the flashbacks show an obviously non-Japanese man in that role.

* [[Played for Laughs]] in ''[[Meet the Robinsons]]''. When Bowler Hat Guy is [[Mr. Exposition|ranting to a captured Lewis]] about [[Motive Rant|why he has a grudge against him]], he says several things that flatly contradicts what is seen on the screen. For instance, he claims that everybody at school hated him after we see a couple of kids being friendly to him and inviting him to hang out, and that he and the evil robotic hat Doris retreated to their "[[Supervillain Lair|villainous lair]]" to make their [[Evil Plan]] - while the actual footage shows them going to an [[Sugar Bowl|adorable]] [[Crowning Moment of Funny|kiddy restaurant]].

* In the film ''[[One True Thing]]'' the main character, Ellen, is shown discussing her mother's death with a detective. Her voice-over narration seems at first to match up with what is shown on the screen, but as the film progresses it becomes clear that she is not giving the detective the full story, and has glossed over her family's problems.

* ''[[The Last Detective]]'' uses this on ocassion, as suspects will give accounts of happenings to Dangerous and co. In one episode, dealing with a murder at a college reunion, one character describes the interaction between the chief suspect and the eventual victim as heated but not really violent, but the audience sees a very vindictive interaction on the brink of coming to blows.

* Used for comedic effect in the TV series ''[[Police Squad!]]'', where the show would open with a Quinn Martin [[Police Procedural]] style title card: "Tonight's Episode," followed by some title, only the title that was announced was a totally different title from what was shown on the screen.

* A favorite comic device on ''[[Top Gear]]'': Jeremy Clarkson's narration frequently contradicts events on screen, usually to deny responsibility for what he did or to claim responsibility for what he didn't do.

* In a variation, unreliable subtitles are used in an episode of [[Law and Order SVU]]. The aunt of two young girls found alone in their apartment comes into the interrogation room and asks the girls what happened in Chinese. The subtitles reflect what the girls actually said but the aunt lies to the detectives. Fortunately, Dr. Huang was there to call her out on it.

** That or she had considerably different standards on what constituted niceness.

* Early in ''[[Abstract Gender]]'', [http://rayneshikama.deviantart.com/gallery/26497595?offset=96#/d2yifld Brian recounts how he woke up as a girl].

* "How [http://www.egscomics.com/?date=2002-05-24 Tedd met Elliot], abridged version" by Tedd in ''[[El Goonish Shive]]''.

 

== Western Animation ==

[[Category:Narrator Tropes]]

[[Category:Truth and Lies]]

[[Category:Example as a Thesis]]