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Memorable, crazy movie

It's hard to see any effort in the film. There's no comedy to speak of, no real drama and, worst of all.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Such an incredible movie.LV (Jane Horrocks) is probably on the autism spectrum, a young woman who practically lives in her room listening to old records. From the front of the building, we can see her father owned a record shop. He is deceased, and his photo hangs on her wall. At night sometimes she puts on one of her records and sings to his photo. Her favorites are his - Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, and Marilyn Monroe. And it seems she can impersonate all of them.Part of the reason LV (LV stands for Little Voice) stays in her room with the sound cranked up is to blot out her loud mother Mari (Brenda Blethyn), a woman who spends all of her time dressing cheaply and going to the local bar. When the telephone is put in at their house, LV meets Billy, the main telephone man's assistant. Billy is shy and devoted to his homing pigeons, and he takes a shine to LV, even coming back to visit her later.One night Mari picks up Ray Say, an agent for burlesque acts. He hears LV singing and realizes she has a phenomenal voice - something apparently her self-absorbed mother never noticed. Ray thinks he can make her a star. Her first attempt doesn't work out due to her shyness but he talks her into trying again. He bets everything on her, selling his meager possessions and setting her up in a show at his friend Boo's (Jim Broadbent) club. LV knocks 'em dead after seeing her father's ghost in the audience. But then Ray wants her to perform again the next night, and he invites a big agent. This starts off as a somewhat light film, in spite of the fact that LV's mother is such a horrible human being. However, the film turns into something else, terrifying and uplifting at the same time.I can't say enough about the performances. Jane Horrocks is best known for being the secretary on AbFab - she is such a wonderful actress, singer, and impersonator, she'll knock your socks off. Michael Caine reminded me a bit of Olivier in "The Entertainer" - third rate, seedy, but with plenty of anger and emotion inside. Brenda Blethyn - well, she's fantastic - a beautiful woman who can look and act like a total slut, be a sweet, lovely woman, or the tough detective Vera. Here, with her short skirts, booze, and cigarettes, she creates an unforgettable character.Ewan McGregor is adorable, so much like LV - a loner with an obsessive hobby, badly treated by his boss just as LV is by her mother. You root for them the whole time and long for both of them to be free, like Billy's birds.A very, very powerful ending - don't miss this.

When LV, "laura", (Jane Horrocks) gets on the stage and really does her stuff, we see talent that she seems to have hidden in all her other roles. Such a pity? Playing the funny but very silly Bubble in Ab- Fab is a distraction? (Mo, in "Born Romantic" is much better?)Here it is hard to believe this is the same Jane! And then she retreats into the strange fantasy world. With such a flimsy story, the movie has to include various trivial scenes just to fill out the time, ie, Billy (Ewan McGregor) and his pigeons, and then there was the blousy, brassy mother, Mari who is awful - gosh it must take really good skills to act that stuff? They get a telephone installed. Great, that fills up a few minutes and provides a few feeble laughs. "You must be the famous Phone Bill". yerss. The house has appalling electrical wiring, cue sparks, blackouts, and later a fire. The dead father gets a few minutes too.Michael Caine's role is sleazy show promoter. Nothing special there. Same for all the others?

Having seen Little Voice when it was comparatively new I decided it was about time it was revisited with one of its rare TV showings - I honestly didn't realise it had been so long!Undoubtedly many viewers, especially those from outside these shores, will find the acting and accents somewhat irksome, but don't let the decidedly downbeat, and grim vision of British Northerness put you off as you will be missing a a charming, perfectly acted movie.The headline is of course Jane Horricks as the titular Little Voice. She brings the character to life with not only the perfect mimicry of the singing greats, but also her portrayal of the clinically shy woman-child living in the shadow of her dead fathers music collection.The rest of the cast harness their talent to give equally great performances. Obviously most praise goes to Michael Caine's funny, manipulative and eventually quite slimy talent agent, or Brenda Blethyns foul mouthed mother, together with Jim Broadbent giving a solid portrayal as the nightclub owner where Caine trys to 'sell' LV.Across the many reviews often very little is said of the equally excellent supporting cast. The pre-Star Wars Ewen McGregor, ever solid Philip Jackson, and even a Pre-'Stenders Annette Badland, provide quiet depth or stoicness to their characters - literally in Badlands case who speaks very few lines.It's not a perfect movie with its less than flattering view of Scarborough, despite the rather nicer shots of the town at night. Also the background to the strained Mari/Laura (mother/LV) remains very much closed up until the very end, whereas I felt there was enough to warrant it being hinted at earlier.Overall though it's so very deserving of a mere 97 minutes of your life and most definitely shows that a handful of talent can trounce megabucks of CGI any day of the week. .... So just a few niggles and a well deserved and underplayed 8/10

'Little Voice' began as a play at London's National Theatre in the summer of 1992, directed by Sam Mendes and featuring Jane Horrocks and Alison Steadman.At 95 minutes in length, there isn't a wasted scene in Mark Herman's 1998 film version. It's rare to find a film which doesn't outstay its welcome and is uniformly well-acted by an impossible to better cast.The 'Little Voice' (LV) of the title is Jane Horrocks, a shy girl in a Yorkshire coastal town. She's often mute and introverted to the point of rarely leaving her room. Since the death of her father, she's had no real conversation with anyone - her only company being the show tunes from her father's LP collection of(Judy Garland, mostly). Horrocks sounds astonishingly like the real things - she belts out 'Big Spender' as if Shirley Bassey was there on the soundtrack. Her blank look is touching. If she rarely speaks it's because she can't get a word in edge ways because of her loud and monstrous mother played by Brenda Blethyn - who is best described as a pantomime dame crossed with a tart.Then there's Michael Caine as Ray Say, the has-been agent who puts LV on the stage of Boo's Nightclub for one-night only. He begins as a boozy and lovable rouge - manipulative and not without charm. But he's ultimately self-serving and unpleasant. At the end of the movie he's on stage giving a drunken, foul-mouthed and aggressive rendering of the Roy Orbison song 'It's Over' (a song about his showbiz career) whilst his creditors wait in the wings.In the end, LV speaks, is saved from a house fire by a BT engineer (a charming Ewan McGregor) and finds a life outside of vinyl and her mother. We even get to know her real name - it's Laura.Everyone in this film is terrific (especially Jom Broadbent as nightclub owner Boo whose acts include the sumo-like tribute band Take Fat). But the film belongs to Caine, in a Golden-Globe winning performance that I think is a career-best. Just watch the scene where he gently coaxes LV into performing live on stage -he even takes us in.