If you're planning to see Raise Your Voice, lower your expectations. Then lower them some more. Even then, you'll be disappointed.
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
Duff ... has sold over four million records and toured to packed houses, yet screenwriter Sam Schreiber and director Sean McNamara, both making feature debuts, set her up to sing just one song through to completion.
It resembles an episode of TV's Saved by the Bell, with a bigger budget and an underlying religious bent.
[Duff] makes me long for the comparatively Dostoyevskian depths of Sandra Dee.
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.
Yes, parents surely want a family film they can take their young daughters to -- but not one so bland and colorless.
More annoyingly bland than genuinely awful. However, the presentation of its cute-as-a-button star is genuinely, absolutely, immeasurably awful.
One has to suspend disbelief to an almost incredible degree to swallow any of this movie.
I cared. I cared. Then it was off to therapy. After all, the film's production company, for gosh sakes, is called ChickFlicks. ChickFlicks!
Sometimes, I wonder why I see these movies. Seriously, when was the last time you heard the words "Hilary Duff" and "great movie" used together without a mocking tone?
Another bland, prefabricated feel-good vehicle for another chirpy Disney-cultivated pop-singer teen queen.
So pure at heart that, even with its over-the-top moments and cliches, one is willing to forgive the flaws and admire all that it achieves.
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