Review 4

‘Raise Your Voice’

Film Review

Type of the film:

Directed by:  Sean McNamara

Produced by: Sean McNamara,David Brookwell,Toby Emmerich, A.J. Dix, Sara Risher

Screenplay by: Sam Schreiber

Story by: Mitch Rotter

Starring: Hilary Duff,Oliver James,Jason Ritter,Dana Davis,Kat Dennings,Rita Wilson,David Keith

Music by: Aaron Zigman

Cinematography: John R. Leonetti

Editing by: Jeff Canavan

Studio: Brookwell McNamara Entertainment

Distributed by: New Line Cinema

Release date(s): October 8, 2004

Running time: 103 minutes 107 minutes (extended cut)

Country: United States

Language: English, French

Budget: $15 million

Box office: $14,867,514

Cast

Hilary Duff as Theresa "Terri" Fletcher

Oliver James as Jay Corgan

Jason Ritter as Paul Fletcher

Dana Davis as Denise Gilmore

David Keith as Simon Fletcher

Johnny Lewis as Englebert "Kiwi" Wilson

Rita Wilson as Frances Fletcher

Lauren C. Mayhew as Robin Childers

Kat Dennings as Sloane

Rebecca De Mornay as Aunt Nina Fletcher

John Corbett as Mr. Torvaldd

Three Days Grace (Adam Gontier, Barry Stock, Brad Walst and Neil Sanderson) as Themselves

Soundtrack

The soundtrack for Raise Your Voice was never released. Three songs sung by Hilary Duff were included in the movie: "Fly", "Someone's Watching over Me", and "Jericho"; all were released on her eponymous second album. Three Days Grace also contributed the songs "Are You Ready" and "Home" to the movie, both on their self-titled debut album.

Critical reception

The film received mostly negative reviews, receiving 33 out of 100 by Metacritic and achieving a 16% (rotten) rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Plot

Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff), a teenager with a passion for singing, has been accepted into a music program in Los Angeles to compete for a $10,000 scholarship shortly after her brother Paul (Jason Ritter)'s tragic death in a car crash. However, her father Simon (David Keith), a second-generation restaurateur, disapproves of Terri's plans, stating that being a singer may not be a worthwhile life choice. In reality, his opposition stems from resentment; Simon turned down a similar scholarship to run his parents' restaurant when they became ill; he is intimidated by the thought of his daughter flourishing where he couldn't bring himself to try. However, Terri's mother, Frances (Rita Wilson), has a different opinion, knowing that Paul would have wanted Terri to attend the program. Frances tells Simon that Terri plans to live with her aunt Nina (Rebecca De Mornay) in Palm Desert for the summer and allows her daughter to travel to LA.

Terri arrives in Los Angeles and weathers some difficult ordeals: her jacket is stolen, her cab driver is crabby, and when she arrives at the music school, the door is locked; fellow student Jay (Oliver James) lets her in and Terri arrives safely. While at the program, Terri makes new friends and learns a great deal about music, but problems arise when she is plagued by memories of the car crash which took Paul's life and finds it increasingly difficult to keep her participation in the program a secret from her father.

Throughout the film, Terri develops a mutual fondness for Jay, but she faces competition from Robin Childers (Lauren C. Mayhew), who was involved with Jay the previous summer. Although Robin still harbors feelings for Jay, it is obvious that he does not reciprocate these feelings. Jay tries to get Robin to cease her efforts to keep him and Terri apart. On one occasion, she kisses him just as Terri walks in. Jay pushes Robin away, but Terri runs off in tears, ignoring Jay's insistence that the kiss meant nothing. Later, finding him drunk, Terri and her roommate Denise (Dana Davis) take Jay elsewhere to sober up. When he does, Terri tells Jay the truth about her brother's death; he was killed by a drunk driver. Jay apologizes, and Terri agrees to finish the song they've been working on for the scholarship contest.

At home, Simon learns of Terri's ruse and becomes furious. On the final day, Simon comes to the school and Terri finds him packing up her belongings; he reams his daughter for disobeying and deceiving him, and for turning his own sister and wife against him. She begs him to let her finish what she started here and not let the summer go to waste. Ultimately, her father concedes and Terri gets to perform the song she rehearsed with Jay. The scholarship prize is won by Denise, and Simon is proud of his daughter and her talents. Terri's teachers hope to see her next year; Simon replies that they just might. Over the end credits, Terri performs for her parents and Nina, with Jay cheering her on.

General Impression

Raise your Voice was a good movie that held a lot of dramatic scenes with a talented and believable cast. However the movie follows a very predictable storyline of a small town , Terri Fletcher (Hillary Duff)out to achieve her dreams. It was slow to start off with, and had the common appearance of first love crushed by the jealous ex-girlfriend and then Terri and Jay get back together to do the final show(who didn't see that one coming?). Not to mention that Terri's Dad had been against her going to Los Angeles in the first place and changes his mind at the most crucial point in the movie,(very foreseeable).

This movie could have been better if the main character Terri had been recast because it is so noticeable that Hillary Duff is not singing some of those really high notes or has in fact prerecorded some of those singing numbers, which just takes away some of the believable factors of the film.

Overall,it was a descent movie, but better classified as a "Chick flick" because if you are an emotional type you'd be best to have a box of tissues next to you, cause you are going to cry.

I love movies like this, where the story and the form overlap. It's just a great movie to watch, it will make you laugh, but sometimes you also have to take the tears away.