Raise Your Voice (2004) Movie Review

Raise Your Voice is a Fame wanna-be after school special that is the first dramatic vehicle for teen queen Hilary Duff. The film of course entails elements and objectives that all audiences have seen before, and is told without any substance or class.

Duff plays a high school choir girl named Terri Fletcher, who loves to sing through every facet of her day. Her older brother (Jason Ritter) inspires her to reach for her dreams, as both yearn to leave their small hometown of Flagstaff, Arizona for bigger and brighter things. Their parents (David Keith and Rita Wilson) are loving supporters of both, even though Dad believes that the best things of living in a small town are overlooked by youngsters. However after tragedy strikes, Terri is left lost and frustrated. She is accepted to a prestigious school for gifted musicians in Los Angeles for a three week summer course. Her father immediately says “no,” because big and bad things can happen to a young girl in Los Angeles. Terri’s mother feels otherwise and with the help of her artistic aunt (Rebecca De Mornay), the three scheme a way to get Terri to Los Angeles while keeping her father in limbo.

Shortly after arriving at the Bristol-Hillman Conservatory, the clichéd characters and situations are unveiled. One of Terri’s inspiring teachers is the hippish Mr. Torvald (John Corbett) and her roommate is a talented, but angry token (Dana Davis). There is also of course the cute British guy (Oliver James), who becomes Terri’s love interest and who once dated her moody arch-rival (Lauren C. Mayhew).

So not only having to win the guy, fit in, and bring out the nicer side of the school’s rudest kids, Terri also has to dodge the bullet with her nosy father as well as prove she belongs with all of these musically talented teens.

Director Sean McNamara and writer Sam Schreiber attempt to deliver a teen drama that tugs at the heart, but serve up nothing more than a very bland melodrama. The characters themselves are just embarrassingly hollow with the typical stock of artistic diversity in a school setting. On top of having dreadful dialogue and progression, the main focus of music and Terri’s relationship with her father is left in the dust until of course the musical finale. The British guy enters as a substitution for much of the duration, even though he looks a little too old to be at a high school conservatory. The direction and writing never rises above much of being mild, mostly just enough to maintain focus on the film’s star.

Duff herself is a better icon for young girls than the majority of other teen celebrities in the spotlight. Lindsay Lohan has a lot better range, but Duff attempts to prove her dramatic chops as Terri in this film. However, she is still not comfortable with being a dramatic presence. There are numerous scenes throughout this film where Duff is merely reciting lines and worrying more about her image than her character or performance. An example is a scene in the film when she about to be kissed. Instead of showing the nervousness or anticipation of the upcoming kiss, Duff quickly fixes her hair for the camera. These notions by the young actress are continuously distracting throughout the film. Perhaps if she lands a project with a strict director or an actor’s director, she will be helped in solidifying her focus. The camera loves her, but she has a long way to go before holding her own as an actress. John Corbett delivers the best work of the cast as Terri’s likeable teacher, but he is limited with his character. Rita Wilson delivers an emotional performance as Terri’s mother and David Keith is stern as her father. Rebecca De Mornay also arises as Terri’s loving and equally talented aunt. It seems that since De Mornay, who looks more like Duff than Wilson does, would have been cast as her mother and Wilson as the aunt, but this is just one additional discrepancy in this tarnished film.

Raise Your Voice may find an audience with young girls, but the majority of them will forget the film after a couple of weeks or when the next Hilary Duff movie opens. There is nothing original or fresh at all in Raise Your Voice and Hilary Duff continuously shows inexperience as an actress. Her character of Terri sings a lot and often, which may be a blessing for some, but for others it may be just a waste of time.