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Raise Your Voice (2004)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:82
Fresh:13
Rotten:69
Average Rating:3.7/10
Consensus: A bland, formulaic tween version of Fame.
Runtime: 1 hr 47 mins
Genre: Dramas
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
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.
I cared. I cared. Then it was off to therapy. After all, the film's production company, for gosh sakes, is called ChickFlicks. ChickFlicks!
Bad in so many departments that pointing out the flaws is like shooting fish in a barrel.
More annoyingly bland than genuinely awful. However, the presentation of its cute-as-a-button star is genuinely, absolutely, immeasurably awful.
If it weren't such a crippling cliché it might be moving, but it is insanely trite and not poignant at all; worse, it's unintentionally funny.
Her dad was right about one thing. Something terrible did happen to her in Los Angeles. She made this movie.
Yes, parents surely want a family film they can take their young daughters to -- but not one so bland and colorless.
Duff carries off the lead role with confidence and grace, exuding a kind of fresh-faced naiveté not often found in other young female stars these days.
As refreshing as it may be to see Duff shed tears, drop the 'like' and wear shirts that don’t show off her midriff, this is more of a baby step than a giant leap forward.
It's a sweet and touching West Coast Fame, though it lacks that 1980 musical's manic energy and excitement.
If it's possible, each successive Hilary Duff film seems to become more formulaic than the one before... just as each has become more predictable and treacly.
Like most performers who chuck TV fame for the big screen, [Duff] follows one grim vehicle (A Cinderella Story) with this even worse one just a few months later.
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