Pequeña voz

To be blunt the only reason I watched LITTLE VOICE was because there was absolutely nothing else on and I was expecting some sort of substandard Mike Leigh film . And I wasn`t expecting my opinion to be swayed either as the opening credits rolled , based on a stage play and full of actors with " Eee by gum " northern accents and with a foul mouthed mother bullying her painfully introverted daughter this had all the hallmarks of a tedious 90 minutes , but the more the film went on the more I became engrossed . I`ve never seen Jim Cartwright`s play so I can`t comment if Mark Herman`s script is an improvement but what a great script it is , something that touches your heart and makes you smile . The scene with LV singing a medley is uplifting while the scenes with " Take Fat " and Trigger Smith - Knife thrower will make you laugh outloud . This is a great feel good movie with a great cast , Michael Caine and Jim Broadbent are very good ( Well they do have three Oscars between them ) , Ewan McGregor gives one of his better performances and Brenda Blethyn deserved her Oscar nod , but standing head and shoulders above the entire cast is Jane Horrocks as LV . The fact that she wasn`t Oscar nominated in the title role is one of the biggest travesties in recent academy award history

Just to sum up this is a great film . British cinema experienced an upturn in the 1990s with the likes of THE CRYING GAME , FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL , and THE FULL MONTY , but these films are as overrated as much as LITTLE VOICE is underrated . LITTLE VOICE is one of the best Brit flicks from the most recent golden age of British cinema

Summary:

This is the story of a painfully shy girl who takes comfort escaping the harsh world of her overbearing mother by enclosing herself in a world of music. The peace she finds while playing her late father's records is the only world she's at home in. She sings the songs to her father's memory with an unbelievable ability to capture not just the voices of artists such as Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and Marilyn Monroe but also the tone, the passion and the quality that made them legends. This ability is overheard by a talent agent who sees fortune in her voice. He tries to rip her out of her private world and force her into the terrifying spot light.

My Opinion:

I watched this film and was amazed. The characters of LV (Jane Horrocks) and Billy (Ewan McGregor) are just so adorable that you love them from the moment they are on screen. The performances of all the supporting players are good but the performance of Jane Horrocks is amazing. It's the kind of performance awards were created to celebrate, but got no where near the kind of recognition it deserved. Hardly saying anything throughout the first part of the film she communicates so much through her eyes and expressions. Then when she sings she does not just 'mimic' the voices of legends but proves she is a legend in her own right.

A slightly twisted film about a brutally shy young lady (LV), an overbearing cliche come to life mother, a slime ball agent and (of course) a slightly odd, yet kind hero(?) figure played by none other than Ewen McGregor, Little Voice is well worth the rental fee.

This movie is absurd, dark, funny, dramatic and at times heart wrenching. A little compassion will get you a long way towards enjoying it. The roles are played very well by talented actors, engrossing you in their turbulent little world.

If you like your films off the wall, this is the movie for you. If you prefer only mainstream Hollywood stuff, stay away!

Little Voice is much more than simply a star vehicle for Jane Horrocks.

It is a very clever translation of a stage play to the screen, which preserves the theatricality of the original by deliberately cartoon-like design and construction of shot, and through calculatedly large acting performances. (Anyone who has seen Michael Caine's TV masterclass on film acting, which consisted largely of advice to reduce every effect to an absolute minimum, will be amused by the sheer scale of his performance in this movie.)

It is a very English movie, in that it shows something of the oppressive decay of an English seaside town. Scarborough is in fact one of the prettier Northern resorts, as some of the external shots in the movie show, but the buildings and interiors could have been shipped directly from the grottier parts of Blackpool. I could smell the rancid chip fat.

It is a fine demonstration of the power of popular songs. When LV sings "Over the Rainbow" in imitation of Judy Garland, anyone with any musical sense will be moved. As Noel Coward said, it's strange how potent cheap music can be.

Contrary to the impression given by some reviewers (doesn't anyone read film credits these days?), Jane Horrocks does not sing every number in the soundtrack. Listen to the original Shirley Bassey belting out "Goldfinger" as Michael Caine (Ray Say) sits in the betting shop punting precious money for LV's launch concert on some three-legged nag. Horrocks is brave to compete with the originals in this way, and she is far from shamed by the comparison.

Unfortunately, Little Voice has some annoying flaws. As in an English seaside postcard of the 1930s, fat people are funny. Why? Because they're fat. Pigs, actually. Roll on the movie where a tubby gets to belt out a Judy Garland torch song.

Horrocks is extraordinary, but all the other actors in the film turn in first rate performances. Jim Broadbent as the seedy nightclub owner and failed comic Mr Boo is brilliant - sad, hopeless and hilarious. Brenda Blethyn as the raucous tart and abusive mother Mari is repulsive and cruel, but also pathetic. Ms Blethyn's performances often annoy me, but to attain the heights of Faye Dunaway as Joan Crawford - in a movie that is actually good - is quite an achievement. Michael Caine as clapped out agent Ray Say ranges from vulgarity to charm to vicious selfishness with utter conviction and apparently without effort. He cannot sing a note, but his raging punk rendition of Roy Orbison's "It's Over" reduced the nightclub audience in the movie, and the cinema audience at the Odeon West End, to jaw-dropping silence.

This movie is grand guignol crossed with a postcard by Eric Gill. It is "What Ever Happened to Baby Jane" with great songs and North Yorkshire accents. And yes, Horrock's impressions are wonderful. Little Voice is not just a star vehicle, but she surely is a star.

An absorbing, fanciful, and sometimes astonishing film, Little Voice is a modern fairy tale that owes a bit to both pop psychology and, of all things, the musical Annie. The film thrusts us into the peculiarly flawed world of a young woman still living in her childhood home. Her nickname, LV (Little Voice) is pronounced in her mother's thick, northern English accent as "Elvie." In fact, her chief problem is her caustic mother, played with tragicomic skill by Brenda Blethyn, who received an Oscar nomination for the role.

Blethyn's Mrs. Hoff is in many ways like the awful Miss Hannigan of Annie's orphanage, who, were it not for the story's overall comic mood, would be overwhelmingly evil. Instead, Blethyn invests the role with a horny rowdiness that helps dilute Mrs. Hoff's self-absorption and cruelty. LV, in response, confines herself to her tidy, attic bedroom in her mother's otherwise cluttered house.

Though the timid and virtually silent LV lacks Annie's cheerful spunk, both yearn for their absent parents-LV for her dead father, who appears to her, soundless and gentle, whenever she is frightened.

But what LV usually does in response to her mother's constant stream of verbal abuse and generally noisy demeanor is to play her father's cherished record collection at top volume. It is in the voices of the women on the records that LV communicates with her mother and most other people. Though Jane Horrocks says little in the title role, when LV does make noise, it is in remarkable, pitch-perfect imitation of these women, namely, Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and even Marilyn Monroe. At first, I was convinced that this was a lip-synch, but Horrocks changes the tempo and inflection to match LV's mood. Indeed, the first thing that appears in the credits at the conclusion of Little Voice is a note that Horrocks sang all of LV's vocal performances. Wow.

Little Voice will remind American audiences of the recent trend in British cinema that embraces down-on-their-luck characters from the UK's industrial north and the shuns the charmless folk who populate Merchant-Ivory-esque period dramas. Little Voice's characters reminded me of both the pitiable unemployed steelworkers of The Full Monty and the rotten Scottish heroin addicts of Trainspotting. Michael Caine combines these comic and serious elements into a convincing performance as Ray, the seedy promoter who wishes to cash in on LV's extraordinary gift. Caine is the foxy Honest John to LV's Pinocchio, and typifies the sense of desperate amorality such characters face when they have pawned their goods and their limbs in order to bankroll a reckless scheme.

With its quirky characterizations and working-class English setting, Little Voice may not be for everyone, but the film's story is timeless, the performances are energetic, and Horrocks's singing might just knock you out of your seat. Little Voice is a truly gratifying film.