If there's anything worse than a bad movie, it's a bad movie featuring faux profundity. You know, they're the kind that concern serious topics but are so off the mark and/or unintentionally funny that such seriousness is all but lost. "Raise Your Voice" is one such film. A supposed tale of overcoming loss and guilt to find one's true inner voice to succeed in life, it's really just a feature length music video designed to promote star Hilary Duff and her burgeoning singing career.
Of course, this isn't the first nor will it likely be the last time a cinematic vehicle has been designed as such, but did this one have to be so painfully bad? At least the similarly fault-filled "Purple Rain" had the magnetic presence of Prince as well as some terrific music and energetically filmed musical numbers.
Alas, but not even remotely surprising, neither Duff the actress (and I use that term loosely) nor singer (double ditto) even comes close to matching that previous vibrant energy. Unless you're a fan of the singer and her brand of pop (excuse me, it's reportedly now deemed "rock") tunes, this offering will likely be the cinematic equivalent of a root canal. It will also probably soon be sitting on the video shelves collecting dust along with the likes of other vanity projects such as "Glitter" and Britney Spear's "Crossroads" as botched dramas featuring pop stars playing pop singers.
Here, the pivotal, catalytic event is the untimely death of the protagonist's brother at the hands of a drunk driver.
Since Duff's character was responsible for them being out that night, she's filled with pangs of guilt that have all but eliminated her desire to sing ever again (if only we could be so lucky). Couple in an overbearing and restrictive father -- played to one-dimensional woodenness by David Keith ("Daredevil," "U-571") -- and you have all of the mixings for typical teen angst.
Not to mention melodrama that oozes forth so much from the film that it near completely smothers any chance of it succeeding or presenting a semblance of reality. Less discerning "tween" viewers might not mind or notice, but this is the sort of world that only exists in movies targeted at them and it's all rather bad and quite annoying.
The salvation, of course, (for the movie, ours doesn't arrive until the end credits roll) comes from Duff's character spending a month at a Julliard type music school where a charming Brit, a hunky teacher, some interpersonal conflict and, obviously, the music eventually frees her soul and allows this songbird to fly. Or warble, as it were, like a pop princess. For all of the classical training, practice and such, Terri shows off her month-long learning experience by belting out -- you guessed it -- a pop song in the big musical finale.
If all of that and the rest of the lame script by rookie Sam Schreiber wasn't bad enough, director Sean McNamara ("P.U.N.K.S." "3 Ninjas: High Noon at Mega Mountain") has delivered a sloppy, disjointed and over-edited 100-some minute film. Filled with enough montages, music video style cuts and establishing shots of L.A. to fill several bad movies, the film is a mess that never gains any sort of believable or engaging momentum.
The thinly drawn characters don't help matters much. As the lead, Duff ("A Cinderella Story," "The Lizzie McGuire Movie") is exactly the same as she's previously been, possibly capturing the sympathy of the target audience but probably no one else. Oliver James ("What a Girl Wants") plays the standard issue, potential boyfriend character that's interchangeable with the same in most any other such film, while John Corbett ("Raising Helen," "My Big Fat Greek Wedding") follows suit in playing the same sort of supportive character he always does.
For reasons unknown, Rita Wilson ("Auto Focus," "The Story of Us") and Rebecca De Mornay ("The Three Musketeers," "Risky Business") play the mother and aunt who encourage Hilary to sing (so they're the ones responsible?) and lie to her father, while Jason Ritter ("Freddy vs. Jason," "Swimfan") looks like a young Tom Cruise before wisely exiting the film (he must have read the rest of the script).
While he's supposed to be the loving and supporting big brother, he comes off as somewhat of a creepy sibling who's far too enamored with his sister (in bits that feel too incestuous for comfort). The likes of Dana Davis (making her feature debut), Kat Dennings (ditto) and Johnny Lewis (ditto ditto) play the standard assortment of characters you'd find at such a school (at least in the movies where everybody drops everything and jams together in true Bohemian/commune style).
Had the musical numbers been better, the acting more believable and the melodrama and other unsavory material jettisoned, this might not have been such a painful experience. Then again, that would have made it an entirely different movie.
Bad, but not quite to the point of being fun (although there are some unintentionally hilarious moments including a mime with sparklers during one of the countless musical montages), "Raise Your Voice" makes you want to do just that in screaming out, "Find another vocation or at least limit your singing to the shower and your acting to home movies!" The film rates as a 2 out of 10.
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