It's all very formulaic and fatuous.
Raise Your Voice (2004)
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Reviews Counted:82
Fresh:13
Rotten:69
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: A bland, formulaic tween version of Fame.
Theatrical Release:2004
Box Office: $10,411,980
Synopsis: Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) is your typical sweet-hearted, small-town girl and she always obeys her intensely overprotective dad (David Keith), but when she gets accepted to a summer program at a... Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) is your typical sweet-hearted, small-town girl and she always obeys her intensely overprotective dad (David Keith), but when she gets accepted to a summer program at a prestigious LA music school and he forbids her to go, she realizes it's time to break away. With the help of her cool aunt (Rebecca De Mornay), Terri figures out a ruse to sneak off to LA and seize the chance to actualize her musical dreams. Once there, it's harsh wake-up time however, as she realizes being naive, adorable, blonde, un-pierced, and un-tattooed means being ostracized in this too-cool musical community. Luckily John Corbett, a sympathetic music teacher, is there to help, and there's time for romance to bloom with a British classmate (Oliver James). Before this little star can truly blossom though, she still has to cope with the trauma of losing her brother in a car accident (it's left her terrified of bright lights, a real problem for a stage performer) and then there's the matter of telling the truth to her furious father. Don't worry too much though, for Duff's effortless charisma lifts this sturdy, comfortably worn-in vehicle easily over the bumpier clichés, and delivers it safely to its inspiring destination. DeMornay is also good as the aunt, who shares Terri's incredibly blonde hair gene. [More]
Starring: Hilary Duff, Jason Ritter, John Corbett, Rebecca De Mornay
Starring: Hilary Duff, Jason Ritter, John Corbett, Rebecca De Mornay, David Keith, Rita Wilson, Oliver James
Director: Sean McNamara
Director: Sean McNamara
Screenwriter: Sam Schreiber
Producer: David Brookwell, Sara Risher, William Shively, Anthony Rhulen
Studio: New Line Cinema
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Release:
Feb 15, 2005
Reviews for Raise Your Voice
This film is nothing more than a series of cliches strung together with a lot of shots of Hilary Duff in tight tank tops.
Dubbed this year’s “Fame,” Sean McNamara’s film has very little in common with the terrific 1980 movie. **
Hilary Duff's latest vehicle ought to be a hearse carrying the ashes of her career.
Hilary Duff finds "Fame" amid this tepid, tremulous fluff, aimed specifically at 'tweens.
Sean McNamara directs this pleasant piece of fluff that is aimed at teens.
Raise Your Voice is like a Hallmark movie of the week produced by an MTV intern.
When Homer Simpson takes a can of Duff beer and crushes it against his thick skull, it's curious how the resulting object has all the dimension of one of Hilary Duff's roles.
I like Hilary Duff, she's very charming, but she's stuck on this after school special level with these movies.
Proves Hilary Duff is here to stay. Is it corny at times? Definitely, but sometimes corn is good for you.
Simple earnestness is one thing, but this film makes Touched by an Angel look like David Mamet.
It has no spark, no wit, and no purpose other than to convince the world that Hilary Duff is a celebrity. I wasn't buyin' it 19 months ago, and I'm not buyin' it now.
"Raise Your Voice" is nothing to shout about. But it's nothing to shout down, either.
[Most viewers] will be left wondering, between endless soundtrack-selling video montages, how a girl with such a wispy baby-girl voice got into a serious music program.
This is for Duff's already committed audiences, which presumably consist of the young, the innocent and the commercially acquisitive.
All we can do is marvel at how the mighty -- Northern Exposure hottie John Corbett (as a weirdly flirty music teacher) and Risky Business babe Rebecca De Mornay (as Duff's frisky aunt) -- have fallen.
Even the kindest reaction to Raise My Voice is likely to be 'shut your face.'
To be fair, the normally likeable Duff gives an adequate performance, but the poorly executed scenes in which Duff's singing voice was clearly post-dubbed and her own lack of emotional range keep the film from rising to whatever potential it may have had.
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| Tomatometer Percentage | Movie |
|---|---|
| 66% 66% | Public Enemies |
| 83% 83% | Harry Potter and the H… |
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| 75% 75% | Julie & Julia |
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