OK, so, we've got this great dramatic story about this girl with a great singing talent, who pushes through her father's hovering and her brother's death to get accepted into one of the premiere music schools in the country.
Great. Who do we cast as the lead? Um, Hillary Duff? You're kidding me, right?
Anyone who can buy into the premise of Hillary Duff as a singing prodigy needs to watch some American Idol reruns and realize that Duff, who can barely carry a tune, would probably have not even made it to Hollywood. She has made millions of dollars by pretending to act and sing in order to market her cuteness and general likability, which has been eaten up by her core fanbase of seven- to twelve-year-old girls. The problem with Raise Your Voice lies in the very serious, dramatic storyline crafted by writers Mitch Rotter and Sam Schreiber. It's just too serious for Duff's fanbase, and she doesn't possess the acting ability to make it believable for the rest of us.
To their credit, Rotter and Schreiber, along with director Sean McNamara, did a very skillful job in putting together an engaging drama. Some elements of the movie were brilliant, such as Terri's reaction to bright light in her eyes after the accident. The movie was just bogged down by its bungling cast of actors. The only truly good performances were by some of the supporting cast members, such as John Corbett, David Keith and Rita Wilson. Johnny Lewis was a terrific comic relief, but his character's main story - a romance with an uptight, virtuosic pianist named Sloane - seems to fit a more typical giggles-and-good-times Hillary Duff movie. Duff's abysmal singing only made McNamara's job even more difficult, and you can actually hear the pitch correction on her voice at some points of the movie, which makes everything seem that much more ridiculous. And something that especially bothered me was Jay's (Oliver James) guitar-playing during the scholarship performance. There was absolutely no rhythm to it at all.
Overall, it's still a cute movie, but it could have been so much better.
Great. Who do we cast as the lead? Um, Hillary Duff? You're kidding me, right?
Anyone who can buy into the premise of Hillary Duff as a singing prodigy needs to watch some American Idol reruns and realize that Duff, who can barely carry a tune, would probably have not even made it to Hollywood. She has made millions of dollars by pretending to act and sing in order to market her cuteness and general likability, which has been eaten up by her core fanbase of seven- to twelve-year-old girls. The problem with Raise Your Voice lies in the very serious, dramatic storyline crafted by writers Mitch Rotter and Sam Schreiber. It's just too serious for Duff's fanbase, and she doesn't possess the acting ability to make it believable for the rest of us.
To their credit, Rotter and Schreiber, along with director Sean McNamara, did a very skillful job in putting together an engaging drama. Some elements of the movie were brilliant, such as Terri's reaction to bright light in her eyes after the accident. The movie was just bogged down by its bungling cast of actors. The only truly good performances were by some of the supporting cast members, such as John Corbett, David Keith and Rita Wilson. Johnny Lewis was a terrific comic relief, but his character's main story - a romance with an uptight, virtuosic pianist named Sloane - seems to fit a more typical giggles-and-good-times Hillary Duff movie. Duff's abysmal singing only made McNamara's job even more difficult, and you can actually hear the pitch correction on her voice at some points of the movie, which makes everything seem that much more ridiculous. And something that especially bothered me was Jay's (Oliver James) guitar-playing during the scholarship performance. There was absolutely no rhythm to it at all.
Overall, it's still a cute movie, but it could have been so much better.