Amazon.com video review:
Michael Caine was robbed of an Oscar. He gives his finest performance in
a decade as big-talking
small-time agent Ray Say, a paunchy,
pale life of the party hiding his desperation under gold chains and cool
bravura. When he hears the almost magical voice of Jane Horrocks's meek
little LV (short for Little Voice) fill her bedroom with the rich voice of
Judy Garland, he sees his ticket to the big time. Little Voice is
ostensibly LV's story, and in fact the original play was written for
Horrocks, whose amazing vocal impressions of Garland, Shirley Bassey, and
Marilyn Monroe (among others) form the centerpiece performance of the film.
But as directed by Mark Herman (Brassed Off), the story of this
mousy
girl who shuts herself in from a bellowing world is just as overwhelmed by
the bombastic characters as LV herself. Brenda Blethyn babbles a blue
streak
as LV's overbearing mother, Mari, an aging widow who escapes her unhappiness
in carousing and becomes almost pathologically jealous when Ray's
attentions
turn from her to LV. As Ray puts his dreams on the line for LV's
showcase, he reveals his true self: a venal man who spits and barks out his
bottled-up anger in an astoundingly bile-filled delivery of Roy Orbison's
"It's Over." The showstopping moment once again overwhelms LV's tale, but
Caine's performance is so astounding it seems a fair trade. --Sean
Axmaker
