You won't be disappointed!

Truly Dreadful Film

It is a performances centric movie

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

Raise Your Voice (2004): Dir: Sean McNamara / Cast: Hilary Duff, John Corbett, Rita Wilson, David Keith, Rebecca De Mornay: Bland teen drama about higher standards and setting goals. Obviously the filmmakers didn't have that in mind when making this crap. Hillary Duff plays Terri Fletcher who dreams of attending a performing arts school but her father forbids it. When she and her brother sneak out to a concert they are struck by a drunk driver on the way home and her brother is killed. Terri blames herself and quits singing but her mother and aunt devise a plan where she supposedly stays at her aunt's place while really attending the school. Predictable outcome where the strict father walks in on her concert at the right moment and realizes he was wrong. Formula drab with a minimal performance by Duff who goes by the motions here. Directed by Sean McNamara who provides insight into music academies but characters are stereotypes. Rita Wilson plays the encouraging mother. David Keith is horrible as the strict father who will see the light. John Corbett plays a music professor who will see potential. What potential he saw in this film, I'll never figure out. Rebecca De Mornay as Duff's aunt is also a waste and makes one appreciate her sexy work in Risky Business. For a much better film on the subject see Fame, which brings stronger conviction to these themes. Score: 2 / 10

Raise Your Voice succeeds on a surprisingly tolerable and almost recommendable level, given the manufactured and star vehicle vibes it allows to seep through. The film ostensibly appears to be nothing more than an advertisement to young teen girls about how cool it is to be young, blonde, on your own, and possessing a singing voice any girl would envy. On the surface, I was almost ready to declare Raise Your Voice a film Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen should've starred in.Yet, upon sitting through it, it dawned on me how much of a screen-presence and a good-natured soul Duff is. This is only my second outing with her, after the mediocre girl-power film The Lizzie McGuire Movie proved to be nothing but a forgettable retread of tired teen drama, and while she lacks the career-diversity of some other stars her age, she doesn't feel programmed and micromanaged to hell by executives like the Olsen twins. With Raise Your Voice, Duff has to at least try and be believable and convey emotion, playing Terri Fletcher, a teenager with aspirations of being a singer-songwriter for a living. These plans are wholly disapproved by her overprotective father Simon (David Keith), who takes after his father's work as a restaurant manager.While her mother Frances (Rita Wilson) understands her dream, Terri is heavily supported by her elder brother Paul (Jason Ritter). After a family barbecue, Simon grounds Paul, who, in turn, sneaks out with Terri late at night to attend a Three Days Grace concert. On the way home, Paul and Terri get into a car accident that leaves him dead and her badly injured. After this, knowing that she's responsible in part for Paul death, loses all interest in singing and shuns off a music program offering a $10,000 college scholarship that she was previously very passionate about.Frances understands that Paul supported Terri and her musical aspirations and would've wanted her to attend the program in order to have a shot at receiving a hefty scholarship and a networking opportunity for her voice. With opposition coming in the form of Paul, Frances tells him that their daughter plans to live at their aunt Nina's (Rebecca De Mornay) beach-house in Palm Desert over the summer. So now Terri is off to attend this music program to network, perfect her skills, make friends, and raise her voice.Duff's Terri is forced to show a great deal of unbridled emotion in this film, moreso than I would've expected for a film that appeared to be a cut-and-paste assortment of teen dramas gone past. In addition, don't mistake Terri's emotions for typical sorrow and woe; numerous scenes show the grieving process and how Terri attempts to muster herself up to sing and carry on her potential carry but is simply brought down by the amount of turmoil and tragedy that plagues her emotions.Despite Duff's capable work here, it's too bad the film at hand has only subpar expectations for her. She is still forced to recite obvious dialog, follow an obvious path of circumstances, to an obvious ending of obviousness. The good news is at least writer Sam Schreiber recognizes pitfalls and certain brutal honesties character must overcome, such as a family death, parental disapproval of a decision, and the struggle to fit in at somewhere you thought you belonged but feel alienated in.Raise Your Voice was released in 2004 to middling box office returns, when Duff's mainstream movie career was nearing a close and she'd be shifted to blurbs in tabloids and teen magazines rather than being front-page news. It marks a higher point in her career when she seemed to be desperately trying to release an inner-voice of her own, despite evident pressures from studios to keep her young, smiley, and untouchable. The film should be recalled as that, but also one that shows that while Duff may've tried to mature, that doesn't mean the same for her film's story lines.Starring: Hilary Duff, Oliver James, Jason Ritter, Dana Davis, Kat Dennings, Rita Wilson, David Keith, Rebecca De Mornay, and John Corbett. Directed by: Sean McNamara.

Okay here's the deal. I rented Raise Your Voice thinking "Whatever" The previews looked halfway interesting and while I was never a huge Hillary fan, I've never disliked her either. And I thought it would have good music. It was more than just good music. What caught my interest was the fact that they killed off her brother in the very beginning. THAT really shocked me.Okay, sure it's really predictable at times, but you expect these kinds of movies to be. I think what I liked about it so much is the characters more than the storyline. Most of them were more than one dimensional. Not to mention that for once the teenagers LOOKED and acted like real teens! What a breath of fresh air! Even the brother, for once, actually looks like a senior verses looking like he's 25 playing an 18 year old.More on the characters. You at first thought her roommate was going to be a total b!tch. Turns out she just doesn't want to get involved with drama and get personal. She's all about hard work and focus, which I can respect. Than the other girl, you think she has an attitude problem because she never talks to anyone. Turns out as soon as she DOES talk you can tell she's totally insecure about herself, which explains why she doesn't talk much. Oh and I LOVE her main music teacher. He's totally believable as the laid back kind of guy, but at the same time he's strict about his classes and he also cares about his students as a person. Like a lot of teachers do.Oh and Hillary definitely gives a great performance. By far her best performance. So I thought this movie would be basically crap with good songs, right? Turns out I was pleasantly surprised and even ended up buying this movie.Rent this one. It'll catch you by surprise as sometimes being deeply moving and insightful, despite it being slightly predictable. I give this a strong 8 out of 10. A very good young teen movie. One of the better ones I've seen in a long time.

Now your probably thinking, "He gave it 10 stars?? Only some horny 17 year old guy would give it that" and I'm not here to disagree. Seen it last night on TV and thought it was awesome... Storey was great, the feeling was good, and most of all the actors were top notch. Some say if you took Hillie and her music out of the movie, I wouldn't want a bar of this film... and that's probably true too. BUT! She was in it, so it made the movie a thrill to watch. You may call it bias, but its the fact. hell, put Hillie in the worst movie ever and ill give it 10 stars. 10/10