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Back Shelf Beauties
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Raise Your Voice Sometimes, I wonder why I see these movies. Seriously, when was the last time you heard the words "Hilary Duff" and "great movie" used together without a mocking tone? Deep down inside, I wanted to believe Raise Your Voice wouldn't stink as much as the other Hilary Duff films. I even hoped it would warm my cold, dead black heart, but it was not meant to be. Hilary, you let me down again. Duff stars as Terri - a vivacious, "talented" high school singer who yearns to get out of Flagstaff and make it in the big city. She wants to apply to a competitive, prestigious music conservatory in Los Angeles for their special summer program, but Dad (David Keith) doesn't want his little girl to be exposed to the evils of LA LA Town (gee, does he have some horrible experience clouding his judgment?). Of course, her brother (Jason Ritter), mother (Rita Wilson) and wild, crazy, free spirited Aunt (Rebecca DeMornay) all want her to go to the school, but evil Daddy keeps putting his foot down. After a tragedy causes Terri to lose her spirit, the family conspires behind Dad's back to get the young performer to the summer program, but it's rough going for our little Britney wannabe once she hits LA. Can Terri overcome her fear and broken heart to win the big scholarship awarded to the best student in her summer program? Is she on her way to stardom? Raise Your Voice couldn't be more corny if it tried, even when the mime shows up. Writer Sam Schreiber gives us two distinct stories, but they are crammed into one movie because he or whoever else worked on the script (story by Mitch Rotter) couldn't make either one into a solid, stand-alone movie. The first movie is all about Terri's life in Flagstaff, the stereotypical overprotective Dad, her desires to get out of smallville and more. With its own plot, climax and resolution, this could have been a decent, average, possibly emotional movie if it was expanded. Then, we follow Terri's struggles in Los Angeles, which turns Raise Your Voice into a Fame rip-off complete with its own stereotypical characters like the hip teacher who challenges convention (John Corbett), the British love interest (Oliver James, because Hilary is too good for any American boy) and the sassy roommate (Dana Davis) who challenges Terri to experience a more diverse life and influences. Raise Your Voice tries to use this plot more, but it feels padded and overextended as director Sean McNamara and Schreiber keep throwing in little, meaningless plot twists that don't effect the final outcome and fail to add any drama to the movie, but keep the film going long past its natural ending, and even longer past the time you stopped caring. McNamara even gives us the biggest Fame rip-off scene of all time, when the kids can't control the music in their souls any longer, so they break out into a "spontaneous" group jam session, just to show us the kids are alright. McNamara puts Duff in several unnatural scenes for her, including a laughable moment when Terri decides to get sassy (which made lots of kids laugh, and not in the good way). Worst of all, McNamara and Schreiber seem to want Terri to walk some odd tightrope between being a good Christian girl, while also being cool and hip in the modern sense. It can be done, and describes many young Christian ladies in our society, but these two awkwardly work in Terri's faith more like a hook to bring in the Christian crowd rather than use it as an important characteristic in her. They want Terri to have faith, but McNamara and Schreiber don't want it to take away from her "cool" factor. Finally, I am officially off the Hilary Duff bandwagon, as if I was ever on it to begin with. In Raise Your Voice, Duff seems extremely phony and overly made up. She looks unnatural with too-blonde hair and skin so white you think she was locked in a dungeon all summer long. In many ways, Duff seems to be fighting off the chubby girl inside of her by taking the same, tired, martyr role in every movie. She constantly portrays the sugary sweet geeky outsider, even as she waltzes onto the set looking like the homecoming queen. Can you play a villain like Mandy Moore in Saved? Can you play a girl with a dark side like Lindsay Lohan in Mean Girls? Can you do something else that requires some acting? In the end, Raise Your Voice feels like it is building up to that special moment when Hilary sings the song the studio and the record company wants you to buy on CD, which makes it a very long commercial. However, along the way, we have to put up with some creepy stuff like the middle aged high school choir teacher who makes sure the underage high school girls emphasize the line, "make sweet love," while singing Joy to The World or the young student, Robin (Lauren Mayhew), who reacts to a teacher's increased attention to Terri as a lover's betrayal. It's as icky as the rest of the film. 1 Waffles (Out Of 4) Copyright 2004 - WaffleMovies.com
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