From director Mark Herman (Brassed Off), this is a fantastic British film with some laughs, drama, sentimentality and great stars, based on the stage play "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" by Sam Mendes (director of American Beauty). Basically LV "Little Voice" (BAFTA and Golden Globe nominated Jane Horrocks) is pathetically shy and lives in seclusion listening to her late father's old records, this obviously drives her abusive, loud-mouthed mother Mari Hoff (Oscar and BAFTA nominated Brenda Blethyn) to distraction. At night however when her father's ghost (Graham Turner) visits, LV sings the songs of the great divas such as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Dame Shirley Bassey. Mari has a new boyfriend with loathsome dead-end talent scout Ray Say (Sir Michael Caine), and one night he overhears LV's innate talent and sees a big chance for making money. He gets local run-down seedy night club owner Mr. Boo (Jim Broadbent) to hear it to, Say gambles everything and forces LV to appear on stage at the club. As they prepare the event, LV and equally shy pigeon racer and telephone engineer Bill (Ewan McGregor) form a tentative, gentle friendship. LV did have a little bit of a bad start when she could only sing in the dark, but the second night she really goes for it, knowing that she can see her Dad in the audience. At the end of the performance though, Ray, Boo and Mari are all celebrating, but LV has gone back to seclusion and solace, and on the night when big talent agent Bunny 'Starmaker' Morris (Taggart's Alex Norton) will be in the audience. Say loses his rag and tries to drag LV to the performance, to be taunted by her many impressions, and when he survives falling down the stairs, he knows his career's gone, and he expresses this on stage with a fantastic performance of Roy Orbison's "It's Over", with some dialogue about his situation thrown in. In the end, after surviving a house fire, LV reveals her real name (Laura) and confronts her Mum Mari about the death of her Dad, and it ends with her helping Billy at the pigeon huts exercising them. Also starring Philip Jackson as George and Annette Badland as Sadie. The play was especially written for Horrocks, so no wonder she is fantastic at being shy, singing as the stars and impressions, Blethyn is also great, and Caine sort of steals the show, a great film. It was nominated the BAFTAs for the Alexander Korda Award for Best British Film, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Sound. Sir Michael Caine was number 44, and Ewan McGregor number 9 on The 100 Greatest Movie Stars, Caine was number 7, and McGregor number 2 on The 50 Greatest British Actors, and Brenda Blethyn was number 19, and Jane Horrocks number 16 on The 50 Greatest British Actresses. Very good!
Review of Little Voice
