Raise Your Voice
by Sean Mcnamara
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DVD details
Actor: David Keith, Hilary Duff, James Oliver, John Corbett, Rita WilsonDirector: Sean Mcnamara
Brand: New Line Home Entertainment
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: English (Unknown), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; English (Subtitled); Spanish (Subtitled); English (Original Language), Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround; French (Original Language)
Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled, Widescreen
Picture Format: Widescreen, 2.35:1
Running Time: 107 minutes
Published: 2005-02-01
DVD Release Date: 2005-02-15
Audience Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Studio: New Line Home Video
DVD Reviews of Raise Your Voice
DVD Review: Hilary Duff tries to sing her way out of all the cliches
Summary: 3 Stars
There was a moment near the end of "Raise Your Voice" where I was wondering how low this 2004 film was going to go. The main setting for the story is a three-week music camp for gifted youngsters in Los Angeles, which ends with the students performing and the awarding of a $10,000 scholarship. I was worried that the script was going to follow all of the other clichs that riddle the story, but they actually gave the scholarship to the person who deserved it. This would be one of the few high notes in a film that has trouble finding an original voice.
Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) is a young, vivacious and talented singer (i.e., Hilary Duff at her best). Then there is a family tragedy (Jason Ritter really needs to start turning down scripts that have getting into cars), and Terri becomes a shadow of her former self. However, she gets accepted to the aforementioned music camp and goes off to see what she can do. There is a problem in that her father, Simon (David Keith) refuses to let her go, which requires her mother, Frances (Rita Wilson) and her Aunt Nina (Rebecca De Mornay), to conspire behind her father's back to get her to the camp (collectively the talents of these three adults are wasted in this film). Simon is an angry man and while the film suggests there are psychological reasons for him being the way he is the character is reduced to an angry stereotype. His wife, his sister, his son, and his daughter all come up with valid reasons for him to bring his head back to where the sun shines, but the script by Sam Schreiber, based on the story by Mitch Rotter, does not allow anything to get through his thick skull until the big finale (note that even then he makes his daughter shut up so that he can speak).
At the music camp Terri has trouble fitting in. She is talented and open and the others are talented and tend not to work well with others. Her roommate, Denise Gilmore (Dana Davis), does some really interesting things with a violin, but was apparently hoping to have the room to herself. Then there is Robin Childers (Lauren C. Mayhew), who was the Queen B at last summer's camp and assumes everything has stayed the same, making a point of telling people in case they thinking music has something to do with talent or personality. Then there is Jay Corgan (Oliver James), who has an English accent to go with the guitar case that is usually strung across his shoulder. He seems a decent sort, who treats Terri like she was as human being (it probably has something to do with the English accent). Robin thinks Jay is still her consort, which gives her another reason to hate Terri. There is also the fact that Terri is this summer's teacher's pet for the school's cool teacher (John Corbett).
Although so much of this film is predictable, my biggest complaint is that one of the sub-plots never gets to its payoff. The choir class is working on "The Hallelujah Chorus" from Handel's "Messiah." Terri is given a solo, which is just another reason to Robin to be miffed (the movie is rated PG so I am trying to temper my language accordingly). Terri is struggling to be freed from the shackles of overwhelming psychological guilt so that her voice can take flight again. There are several scenes of the class working on this song, with and without Terri. But is there a scene where they stand up and sing the song? Why, no, there is not. It seems that Terri has been working on another song, with Jay, that he had written (she helps with the words), and that is much more in the musical vein that Duff is known for singing (although she does tackle an aria from "Don Giovanni" to show she is game).
Director Sean McNamara seems to have been inspired by the movie "Fame," which is a pretty good movie to be inspired by if you are doing this sort of genre where people are legitimately bursting into song and the instruments behind the singers can actually be seen on the screen. But that means the best scenes of this film seem rather derivative of Alan Parker's 1980 film and it seems rather counterproductive to make Hilary Duff part of the gang. In fact, I was thinking that "Raise Your Voice" might work better if it did not star Hilary Duff. I read that Evan Rachel Wood and Jonathan Jackson were the original choices for the young leads, and that only confirms my working hypothesis. Duff is okay in the role. She has a nice smile and when she has to cry she puts a lot into it, but she is not an actress on the same level of Wood, who I think is more talented than Duff and Lindsey Lohan combined. Unfortunately the current generation of young movie goers is being asked to choose only between those two teen queens.
Description of Raise Your Voice
Features include:
?MPAA Rating: PG
?Format: DVD
?Runtime: 103 minutes
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