LITTLE VOICE A film review by David N. Butterworth Copyright 1999 David N. Butterworth
**1/2 stars (out of ****)
Watching "Little Voice," the motivations of dramatist Jim Cartwright become perfectly clear. After witnessing Jane Horrocks performing spot-on vocal impersonations of some of this century's most expressive pop divas--Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Billie Holiday to name a few--Cartwright wrote a stage extravaganza specifically for the bantamweight British actress.
Five years after its run on the London stage, "The Rise and Fall of Little Voice" has been adapted for the big screen, albeit with an abbreviated title.
Not surprisingly, the best thing about "Little Voice" is what caught Cartwright's ear and imagination all those years ago--Horrocks doing Garland, Monroe, Bassey, and Dietrich to such intimate perfection you'd swear her vocalizations were dubbed (necessitating the film's closing statement to the contrary). She's pretty amazing, and my main regret on leaving the theater was that I wanted to see and hear more of her. Does she do Streisand too?
In fact, the film's "plot" often feels like padding, a thinly-veiled attempt to bridge the gaps surrounding the moments when LV (Horrocks) gets up on stage and belts out production numbers like Shirley Bassey's "Big Spender."
Following the death of her beloved father, LV (the initials stand for 'little voice' on account of her limited capacity to express herself verbally) takes to her room, where she listens to her father's collection of long-playing phonograph records almost exclusively. She mimics the performers as a tribute to her late father, and also to distance herself from her loutish and vulgar mother ("Secrets & Lies"' Brenda Blethyn), whose attempts to attract men would put a promiscuous teenager to shame.
Blethyn and Michael Caine, as a loan shark-avoiding talent agent, lend the film some added color with their loud, outrageous characterizations (and in Caine's case, loud, outrageous shirts). Blethyn's role recalls something Julie Walters ("Educating Rita," "Intimate Relations") might have done for a laugh, and Caine is perfectly cast and loving every minute of it, including the moment when his Ray Say "discovers" LV and persuades her to perform at the local nightclub with the unfortunate name of Mr. Boo's.
Less in your face is Ewan McGregor, who has a subdued role as Billy, a telephone repairman's apprentice who races homing pigeons. His hobby leads to some pretty obvious metaphors about caged birds being set free, but provides an opportunity for LV to ask Billy an amusing question about his prized pigeon, Duane: "What's he doin' in France?"
The film was shot (and presumably set, although nobody bothers to mention it) in Scarborough, a seaside town on the east coast of Yorkshire which could lay claim to being the Las Vegas of Northern England if it wasn't for Blackpool on the opposite coast. These are the kind of places that make Atlantic City look glamorous.
But sometimes talent emerges from the crummiest of places.
"Little Voice," an ugly duckling tale about a little mynah bird that could, showcases a remarkable talent in Jane Horrocks. Previously regarded for her nervous, withdrawn portrayals in working-class social dramas, or as Bubble in the British sitcom "Absolutely Fabulous," "Little Voice" allows another side of Horrocks' star to shine.
-- David N. Butterworth dnb61@hotmail.com
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