Little Voice is *not* a masterpiece, it isn't even a good film. The prevailing tone is of unspeakable snobbery and patronisation of working class people. The attitude is "Oh aren't working-class people horrible when they try and be cultured? They should stay at home, meditate on the lowliness of their position, and not impose themselves on us cool people." From the moment when a scene of a fat woman disco-dancing is presented as a piece of comic horror, the film sneers at its characters. The "happy" ending occurs when LV and Billy decide, in the style of Caliban "to be wise hereafter, and seek for grace", ie to reconcile themselves to their lowly place in the film makers' worldview. The saddest thing about the film is Brenda Blethyn's appallingly OTT performance as Mari - we know she can do better than this from Secrets and Lies, so we can only blame the director for forcing her to play such a caricature. Ray Say is, by the close of the film, utterly destroyed as a human being, yet the film-makers appear to regard this as a just punishment for crimes against taste.
Everybody involved with this film should be forced to go and see John Water's "pecker", to see how a similar plot can be presented in a warm-hearted manner which is funny without spitting on its characters.
Everybody involved with this film should be forced to go and see John Water's "pecker", to see how a similar plot can be presented in a warm-hearted manner which is funny without spitting on its characters.