Solemplex To me, this movie is perfection.

AniInterview Sorry, this movie sucks

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

Guillelmina The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

Steve Pulaski Raise Your Voice succeeds on a surprisingly tolerable and almost recommendable level, given the manufactured and star vehicle vibes it allows to seep through. The film ostensibly appears to be nothing more than an advertisement to young teen girls about how cool it is to be young, blonde, on your own, and possessing a singing voice any girl would envy. On the surface, I was almost ready to declare Raise Your Voice a film Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen should've starred in.Yet, upon sitting through it, it dawned on me how much of a screen-presence and a good-natured soul Duff is. This is only my second outing with her, after the mediocre girl-power film The Lizzie McGuire Movie proved to be nothing but a forgettable retread of tired teen drama, and while she lacks the career-diversity of some other stars her age, she doesn't feel programmed and micromanaged to hell by executives like the Olsen twins. With Raise Your Voice, Duff has to at least try and be believable and convey emotion, playing Terri Fletcher, a teenager with aspirations of being a singer-songwriter for a living. These plans are wholly disapproved by her overprotective father Simon (David Keith), who takes after his father's work as a restaurant manager.While her mother Frances (Rita Wilson) understands her dream, Terri is heavily supported by her elder brother Paul (Jason Ritter). After a family barbecue, Simon grounds Paul, who, in turn, sneaks out with Terri late at night to attend a Three Days Grace concert. On the way home, Paul and Terri get into a car accident that leaves him dead and her badly injured. After this, knowing that she's responsible in part for Paul death, loses all interest in singing and shuns off a music program offering a $10,000 college scholarship that she was previously very passionate about.Frances understands that Paul supported Terri and her musical aspirations and would've wanted her to attend the program in order to have a shot at receiving a hefty scholarship and a networking opportunity for her voice. With opposition coming in the form of Paul, Frances tells him that their daughter plans to live at their aunt Nina's (Rebecca De Mornay) beach-house in Palm Desert over the summer. So now Terri is off to attend this music program to network, perfect her skills, make friends, and raise her voice.Duff's Terri is forced to show a great deal of unbridled emotion in this film, moreso than I would've expected for a film that appeared to be a cut-and-paste assortment of teen dramas gone past. In addition, don't mistake Terri's emotions for typical sorrow and woe; numerous scenes show the grieving process and how Terri attempts to muster herself up to sing and carry on her potential carry but is simply brought down by the amount of turmoil and tragedy that plagues her emotions.Despite Duff's capable work here, it's too bad the film at hand has only subpar expectations for her. She is still forced to recite obvious dialog, follow an obvious path of circumstances, to an obvious ending of obviousness. The good news is at least writer Sam Schreiber recognizes pitfalls and certain brutal honesties character must overcome, such as a family death, parental disapproval of a decision, and the struggle to fit in at somewhere you thought you belonged but feel alienated in.Raise Your Voice was released in 2004 to middling box office returns, when Duff's mainstream movie career was nearing a close and she'd be shifted to blurbs in tabloids and teen magazines rather than being front-page news. It marks a higher point in her career when she seemed to be desperately trying to release an inner-voice of her own, despite evident pressures from studios to keep her young, smiley, and untouchable. The film should be recalled as that, but also one that shows that while Duff may've tried to mature, that doesn't mean the same for her film's story lines.Starring: Hilary Duff, Oliver James, Jason Ritter, Dana Davis, Kat Dennings, Rita Wilson, David Keith, Rebecca De Mornay, and John Corbett. Directed by: Sean McNamara.

SnoopyStyle Terri Fletcher (Hilary Duff) has a lovely singing voice who wants desperately to get into Bristol Hillman Music Conservatory in LA for the summer. Her brother secretly submits a DVD to the school. When they sneak out to a concert, they get into a car crash and her brother dies. With her guilt and her father's disapproval, she no longer wants to sing and go to the summer camp. However she relents and follows her aunt and mother's advice.The big problem is that while Hilary Duff is almost good enough as an actress. She's no where good enough as a singer. She plays the bubbly innocent girl well. The big melodrama about the brother's death sets an interesting tone. However the school plays like a bad 'Fame' copy. Other than Kat Dennings, none of the students are interesting at the school. John Corbett is hopelessly cheesy as the personable teacher. It's a Hilary Duff vehicle that she's not quite good enough to drive.

kittyswisestrips OK, so right after you left Terri starts making out on a rooftop with caterpillar guy and ghetto chick is angered. Then the whole crew goes to an open microphone night. Terri and caterpillar start singing and then Terri freaks out and runs outside because she saw a bright light and it reminded her of creepy jean jacket brother. Terri gets the solo in that one class and ghetto chick is angered. Then ghetto chick starts yelling at caterpillar while her shirt awkwardly falls down. Then Terri is like "im not good enough for this junk" and the teacher guys like Nah man. Next, Terri walks in on ghetto chick and caterpillar kissing so she starts crying again and runs off into her closet and rips a bunch of blank pages out of a diary. Some sad music happens and there's a montage of her walking on the beach in awful pants. (wow this movie is fast paste, all of this happened in 5 minutes). Then she has a heart to heart with the teacher "you have to take what's here and put it in here." That's what she said. Caterpillar shows up drunk and sassy black chick starts raging. Then she says "y'all need to relocate" and caterpillar and Terri go up to the roof and caterpillar passes out. Then Terri stays up there with him until morning for some reason. They make up and start singing something reminiscent of high school musical. The dad finds out that Terri is at the school and he silently rages. Again, you were definitely right about "hot" crazy guy. Then there is an awkward make out scene with crazy guy and scary should-have-Russian-accent chick that results in destruction on multiple drum sets. Now there is the final performance to see who will earn the scholarship. Ghetto chick opens with a musical number and a fail outfit. Next is crazy guy. He has ADD at the VERY least. scary chick is next, followed by sassy black chick who gets magic with it. Last is caterpillar and Terri but Terri's dad shows up and tries to make her leave right before she gets on stage! But then he ends up joining in the audience with the mom. Once she's on stage she sees her creeper brothers ghost sketchy style. Then she starts singing a quality song while caterpillar plays the guitar,and the whole scene is very similar to the end of high school musical. While singing she pops a squat which looked awkward. Then they start making out backstage. Sassy black chick wins the scholarship. Terri's dad turns into a soft one and starts talking about how proud he is and says he might send her there next year (there should be a raise your voice two!)

fillefraiche When I first saw Raise Your Voice, a film by Sean McNamara, I was eight years old and I fell in love with it. When I was eight, I had no criticism for anything. It might have had to do with the fact that I was practically obsessed with Hilary Duff, (the lead in the movie) but after re- watching it, I saw how crappy it really was. Terri Fletcher is a16 year old girl who has an "amazing singing talent." She applies for a spot in a prestigious music school and is accepted. After the death of her brother she transform s into someone more insecure and begins to believe her own father's doubt of her to be true. Against her father's wishes she goes to the school and meets her strange rebel boyfriend with a passion for making 'music with meaning' and he teaches her to overcome her fear and sadness and cope with all disappointment (like seeing him cheating on her, or not living up to her own expectations) and perform. Some people call this inspiration. I say "bullshit."My first judgement was of how unoriginal the characters were. You've got the characteristic nerd who falls in love with a woman way out of his league, the brilliant moody goth chick, the 'deep', sexy British guy, the rival, the hot ex, and of course, the inspirational hippie teacher. In some ways, you can make this work. But the film did not. Starting with Terri Fletcher, the lead. She is an insecure, unstable and whiny sixteen year old with considerable 'talent'. (I would like to note that most of her singing that people find 'amazing' was done on voice over because it was out of her range, ironically because the movie emphasizes natural talent) The amount of time she spends running from place to place crying about her boyfriend, or her brother or any other crap that goes on in her life is really amazing. I understand that the character has just lost her brother. Sadly, this is not an excuse to whine and moan about everything, with a "woe is me" mindset for the ENTIRE movie (maybe not the end). For me, this is actually the opposite of inspiration. Perhaps their attempts at pushing religion down my throat was supposed to be that in some form, but it was kind of pretentious. Hilary Duff certainly adds a layer of charm and teenager-ness to the character, and in some ways the self consciousness was necessary, but she did not deliver in this movie. She was whiny and the scenes that were important and emotionally straining were ruined simply because of poor acting and writing. The film emphasizes independent, mature youth who, through a hard journey are able to triumph, and react to disappointment (which there is so much of in the movie) sensibly like an adult would. This is countered by the whiny character that Duff portrays. The script was bad to begin with, but the acting by almost every character in the movie brought it to a whole 'nother level. The ending was the "big showcase" where all the members of the music camp present their talents in a competition for a 10000 scholarship. Although Duff does not end up winning, she is ever so happy for her roommate, Denise, the girl who needs the scholarship because she's so poor. It was a terrible portrayal of a teenager's reaction. (I would have been crying.) But then her father, who showed up at the showcase, tells her she was amazing and that she can attend next year. Then the entire movie ends with a big musical number in the court yard that seems to have just assembled itself. (WTF? only in teen movies)The messages to be received in this movie (which is intended for kids, btw) was mind- blowing. On the roof where she initially denies him a kiss then a few minutes and a compliment later, she puts out? Come on. She lies to her father, she deals with her problems not with hard work, or talking about them, but with tears. Duff is theoretically a good little Christian girl, but she engages in a number of immoral activities (i.e. lying to her father, covering up underage drinking, etc).There were, however, some positive things about the movie:Although Duff's acting was bad and the character was whiny, she did add to the movie because the character called for some self consciousness. She did go a little over board, which I admit is not necessarily her fault. She didn't write the damn thing, after all. There was a campy, feel good vibe from this movie that is enjoyable by some audiences, so I would recommend it for families and (like i was when i saw it) 8 year olds. Overall, the movie was idealistic, predictable, pretentious, whiny and just bad. I enjoyed it when I was eight, but that might be the only time.