Raise Your Voice
- Film Worth:$6.50
- FILMINK rates movies out of $20 - the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
The ubiquitous Hilary Duff (who can't exactly be accused of shirking work these days -...
The ubiquitous Hilary Duff (who can't exactly be accused of shirking work these days - she'd travel to Fallujah if she thought it would help her sales) plays Terri Fletcher, a wide-eyed ingénue from small-town Arizona. Following a personal tragedy, she wants to clear her demons with a three-week music camp in LA. Dad doesn't approve, but she pulls a fast one and goes anyway. Small-town girl Fletcher gets hell at the camp, but her salvation comes from a spunky and good-hearted English lad called Jay (Oliver James), who encourages her to be herself, offers her warm hugs and tells her to sing with joy from the bottom of her heart (but not because he's trying to screw her - how could you think that?). John Corbett, as one of those inspiring music teachers who re-writes the rule book and looks inside, is obviously into her as well.
Raise Your Voice isn't abysmal (that was Duff's last outing - the cynical A Cinderella Story), it's just aggressively average. If blandness were a virtue, Hilary would be a shoe-in for the Nobel Prize. A few touches of real anarchy would have given this flick wheels - instead it never unlocks the cruise control. Young Duff continues to tread the line creatively and this time the result is difficult to slam, but impossible to recommend. Watch out for her next film - it should be released in 2-3 weeks and surely she'll be here to plug it.
