Raise Your Voice
It’s amazing what one film can spurn. Ten years ago, a movie following the lives of several over-privileged 16 year-old kids in Los Angeles was released, which cleverly aped the plot of Jane Austen’s Emma. Ever since Clueless, there have been literally hundreds of films in the same mould, complete with the essentials – pretty lead...
It’s amazing what one film can spurn. Ten years ago, a movie following the lives of several over-privileged 16 year-old kids in Los Angeles was released, which cleverly aped the plot of Jane Austen’s Emma. Ever since Clueless, there have been literally hundreds of films in the same mould, complete with the essentials – pretty lead character, misfit boy and/ or girl and, of course, the obligatory ‘real life’ guitar band playing at a gig. Yet, bizarrely, according to the Hollywood head honchos, we need even more of them.
Not the greatest of fanfares that could have introduced a DVD review, but there’s no point trying to disguise the truth. Conforming to the usual rules and regulations that keep such a Picture safe, commercially viable and guaranteed a decent return in the box office, RAISE YOUR VOICE is everything you would expect. Well, Almost everything.
Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) is just an average girl with a (supposedly) amazing gift for music, but party pooper dad just isn’t interested – forcing older brother Paul to go behind their backs and send a video displaying her vast talent to a summer Academy. After a horrific car accident, in which Paul dies but Terri miraculously survives, she also goes behind aforementioned grumpy Dad’s back and goes to the Academy for the summer, feeding him a cock-and-bull story about being at her Auntie’s place in the desert.
Once at the Academy, the Fresh Prince of Bel Air’s Uncle Phil introduces them to their teachers, and the rest is pretty much textbook stuff. One of the boys (looking and sounding strangely like a member of pop combo Mcfly) takes a fancy to Terri, she reciprocates and has to travel to the desert to make her father think she’s been staying with her auntie all along. Cue breaking up and making up with boyfriend, final song which goes down a storm and dad’s realisation that, despite his fears, his only child should be able to do the thing she loves and – surprise – he’s really, really, really proud of her. You can almost imagine ‘Saved by the Bell’s Mr Belding proclaiming that “They all get A’s – go Bayside!!”
The above may tend to suggest that the film walks on the side of predictability, which it mostly does. In fact, when the Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphics were translated in the mid nineteenth century, they actually cleverly predicted the plot for Raise your voice. Honest. Yet, the first half an hour or so of the film lures one into a false sense of security by being, shock horror, slightly different.
Ok, so the signs of what is to come are all there -Blonde Bombshell, summer school, overprotective father etc – but you think that maybe, just maybe there might be something out of the ordinary about this specimen. For one thing, there seems to be a large dose of unhealthy flirtation between brother and sister in the first ten minutes of the film, and you find yourself thinking “incest, surely not!” Then, just when you think you might be right, they kill him off (as if knowing that the on screen sexual chemistry between brother and sister is something best left to Phil Redmond), but that only gets you thinking “wow! A death near the beginning – this film could have everything”. But it doesn’t.
The rest of the film’s disappointment is mainly down to the clichés that run through it like a stick of the proverbial Blackpool rock – and, at times, it is just as sickly. As the director so tellingly states in the accompanying ‘making of’ featurette, when you make a Hilary Duff film, you’re ‘making a fun, nice movie’. With such low expectations from the outset, it’s easy to see how everyone involved in the project ended up in an artistic vacuum, picking the easiest and safest options as if they were at the sweets isle in Woolworths. After all, despite pretty decent performances from all involved, including Sex and the City’s John Corbett as the archetypal ‘cool teacher’, there is nothing approaching a break from normality. ‘Mediocre’ is the order of the day.
Having said that, Duff plays the part of the ‘teenager on a mission’ extremely well throughout, a fact not all too surprising when you consider it’s all she’s ever done. Yet, you can’t help thinking that the sands of time must surely be running out on the character to which Hilary is most accustomed – especially when you consider that she’s already a worldwide sex symbol aged only 17, and even the most optimistic would have to admit that it seems unlikely she’ll enjoy some sort of Michael J Fox longevity, or put more simply, she won’t be able to play a kid for much longer. She’s an undeniably talented actress, not to mention aesthetically stunning, but if she’s going to be fighting it out with Scarlett Johansson for her generation’s Marilyn Monroe crown, sooner or later, a role with a bit more of an adult audience is likely to be necessary.
Which, in all fairness, is something this film was never aimed at. Let’s be honest, 14 year old girls will love it; there are plenty of musical Boyband-look-alikes for them to swoon over and they are likely to all but worship Ms Duff. In essence then, it’s a picture made solely to appeal to that very demographic, originality and inspiration never enter the equation - not that this is something to be sneered at. There is nothing essentially wrong with the film as a product (which, short of gift wrapping and free happy meal, this certainly is) it’s just that there have been few great movies made solely for that purpose. The sooner the younger actors involved in Raise your voice realise that, the closer they will all be to starting their careers for real. They just need to shout that little bit louder.
THE DVD
For a film which appears to be style over substance, the extras are surprisingly dull. The ‘Making of’ featurette isn’t long enough for starters, and contains no real insight into the process of making the film or what it’s really supposed to be about. The other extras are similarly unappealing; the deleted scenes and outtakes could have been left off the disc without anybody ever noticing, the ‘Song Jam’ feature is annoying as hell, and Hilary’s music video will only please major fans which, admittedly, are the only people who would watch it anyway. At the risk of sounding old and dull, you’d have to have REALLY enjoyed the film or HD’s previous work to sift through the non-movie portions of the DVD.
As far as visual and audio aspects are concerned, both are technically very good. Films such as this tend to be rather good showcases for picture quality, considering how colourful they are and RYV is no exception. The soundtrack, whilst being not much more than a showcase for Duff’s digitally enhanced vocal abilities, is passable, but won’t excite many people which, in the case of Raise Your Voice, is extremely apt.
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