Rating: 
Summary: Jane's singing is the Horrocks!
Review: It's nice to see Caine cast against type. Here he is neither the hero, nor does he retain any trace of his usual London glamour. He is a morally bankrupt promoter, working with strippers in the clubs of Northern England until he finds some decent acts. One such act is Jane Horrocks's Little Voice, a quiet girl who comes to life only when she is singing. The actress's talent and extensive training leave you with the impression that she is a singer who just happens to act rather than the other way round. If Brenda Blethyn's part wasn't offered to Julie Walters first, I will eat my hat! She is stereotyped ageing northern tart, played with great pathos as well as comedy by Blethyn. Jim Broadbent is suitably seedy as club owner Mr Boo, while Ewan McGregor has a surprisingly small role as a telephone technician who has only peripheral involvement with Little Voice until the last scene. The script is full of good characterisation and wry social comment. I liked it because it tells an original story in an entertaining way. Special praise must go to the set designer, who re-created the record shop/house perfectly, even down to the dangerous wiring job. This film deservedly won many awards and I hope to see more from writer/director Mark Herman in future.
Rating: 
Summary: Some Strong Performances But Ultimately Not a Great Film
Review: The strikingly talented Jane Horrocks plays the strikingly talented LV, a troubled teenager who is pathologically shy and wholly closed in on herself, obsessively cherishing her dead father's memory. She shares a dingy home, urgently in need of rewiring, in some nowhere northern town with her sluttish, neglectful and completely unloving mother Mari, played by Benda Blethyn. But there are two developments in LV's unhappy life that might promise some improvement. First there is Billy (Ewan Mcgregor), a quiet but very decent young telephone engineer bonkers for racing pigeons who has taken a real fancy to her. (There are some useful tips here for amorous telephone engineers about the real purpose of 'reading matter'.) And then there is her mother's latest beau, a desperately small time showbiz agent Ray (Michael Caine) who specializes in fading strippers and nohope novelty acts whom he sorts out with fixtures in nowhere venues like the run down club of his friend Mr Boo (Jim Broadbent). And Ray discovers that LV can sing. She can sing Judy Garland just like Garland, Marilyn Monroe just like Marilyn and likewise for Shirley Bassey, Billie Holiday and others. So he is going to make her a star. Make her huge. The trouble is she isn't all that interested. Her singing, in her eyes is a private, lonely affair between her and her dad. She is pushed into doing a spot at Boo's club which fails miserably as she is too shy and reluctant to perform more than momentarily. But a little careful emotional manipulation by Ray persuades her to make a real effort just once. The result is a triumph and, by the evening's end, bigshot agent Bunnie Morris is booking his train to come check her out the next night. But she never agreed to a next night and, come next night, she is simply refusing to leave her bedroom. Meanwhile, down at the club, the audience, including the important Mr Morris, are getting restless and irate as Boo desperately tries to keep them on side with rubbish act after rubbish act. Leave her room she eventually does however and, just before the audience gives up and riots or simply leaves, another triumphant performance finally ensues. Morris is awestruck and the film ends as, her shyness forgotten, she leaves for a new life and a lucrative film contract in Beverley Hills. OK, I lied. That last paragraph does not in fact describe how this film ends. No doubt if a big Hollywood studio had made it, it very likely would have. But happily the writers, Cartwright and Herman, have enough integrity and wisdom to realize that that way of ending the movie would be artistically unthinkable. That is the good news. The bad news is that, having had the good sense not to end the film that way, they seem a bit at a loss to find a satisfactory alternative and the ending of the film is a bit of a shambles. It's as if they'd had two or three somewhat unsatisfying ways to end it and gone for a somewhat botched mixture of all of them. So that a film that starts out quite interesting ends up just falling apart. Ultimately then, not a success. And flawed too in other ways. In particular, LV's, with hindsight rather Harry Potter-ish, visions of her late dad, smiling and waving at her, are badly judged, weak and sentimental. But while not a success it's certainly not wholly without merit. For one thing there's the cast. Horrocks, Caine, Blethyn, Broadbent, McGregor: you can't go that far wrong with a cast like that. Caine, as always, delivers the goods as the seedy Ray (though he can't quite salvage the poorly written scene of his rather over-dramatic exit). And Broadbent is great as the even seedier Mr Boo. Best of all is Blethyn as Mari, the comic centre of the film, coarse and ghastly, like a really nasty variant on Chaucer's Wife of Bath.
Rating:
Summary: Caine, Horrocks, Blethyn, McGregor --
Review: As others have said, with this cast you can't go far wrong. This is a modest movie in many ways -- it takes place almost entirely in about three settings, and these people live in a very confined world. But it's still not confined enough for L.V., who longs only to live in song and memory. The movie features two different forces working to pull LV out of her shell. Ray and her mother try to exploit L.V.'s gift for their own benefit, not caring if they hurt her or, ultimately, each other. Bill, on the other hand, is almost as shy as L.V.; because he understands her and only gently tries to get to know her, he actually makes some headway. (I still think one of the most romantic moments I've ever seen in a movie is the scene where he offers to answer the telephone for her, so she won't have to talk to a stranger.) This movie is more than a simple comedy -- by the end, it has become emotionally wrenching, as L.V., her mother and Ray each hit their breaking point. But Bill's presence in L.V.'s life -- and, more importantly, the confidence she has gained through his friendship -- assure us that L.V. is headed for better things. Sometimes the tone is uneven; Ray's vicious attack on L.V.'s mom near the end makes the cut-downs in "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf" look tame, and coming after so much gentle humor, the final spiraling-out-of-control is jarring. But these scenes are so brilliantly acted that it's worth it. Even if the rest of the movie were not as good and as memorable as it is, "Little Voice" would be worth seeing just for Horrocks' amazing vocal performance. It's almost unbelievable how brilliantly she sings in so many different styles, and after her big finale, I found myself singing "Get Happy" for weeks.
Rating:
Summary: This one speaks as profoundly as it sings.
Review: Laura Hoff (Jane Horrocks) is a horribly timid and soft-spoken young lady, hence her pet name Little Voice. So fearful and introverted is the gentle creature that she rarely ventures out of her house and into the world outside. Instead, she counts on the voices of such enchantresses as Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Shirley Bassey as a sounding board for the pain she suffers form having lost her father. Living in the sleepy seaside town of Scarborough, England with a repressive, pseudo-socialite mother, Little Voice's grandest ability is to communicate by using her melodic and unparalleled gift for singing, and finds refuge within her music as well as her father's ever-present spirit. The day comes when a sleazy tavern act promoter, a role that is splendidly delivered by one of England's foremost actors, Michael Caine, suddenly discovers LV. In an act of fervent courage, Little Voice comes out of her shell and sweeps an audience off their feet with her incredible stage presence, and her even more surprising knack for flawlessly emulating the voices of her favorite sirens. Nevertheless, this film has an even more profound agenda. Not only is LV finally vanquishing her constrained sense of self, but also she has finally begun to trust the another person other than her father's ghost, a local boy who likes to look after his pigeons. Ewan McGregor fills the shoes of the small role, but he is one of the characters who has a more profound effect on Laura "Little Voice" Hoff. Furthermore, the relationship between LV and her mother comes to its zenith when a fire destroys their home. The flare up is a momentous allegory for how LV's rage will cause her to shed her old self and take on the life she was meant to experience. This picture is one of tumultuous family battles and the struggle to become self-actualized. What I feel audiences will take away from this film is the fact that the process of letting go is just as important as that of grabbing on to the one thing which makes us feel alive. Let me also bring to the foreground that all songs were completely undubbed and no lip-synching was involved. In plain English, Jane Horrocks genuinely performed and emulated all vocals that were crooned in this film. All the more reason to feel the force and craft behind this zestful and rousing piece of work.
Rating:
Summary: Jane Horrocks is remarkable
Review: Jane Horrocks is a British comedian who amongst her many talents is a great mimic of female vocal artists. This film was originally a stage play based around her. The plot of the film is simple. Jane plays Little Voice a young woman who lacks self confidence and whose life has been destroyed by an overbearing and grotesque mother. The mother continually belittles her daughter who is so lacking in any social sills that she sits in her room each night playing old 50's and 60's records owned by her father. It would seem that the father was also destroyed by the mother. She sings along to these records and is able to mimic such greats as Billie Holiday, Judy Garland and Marilyn Munro. (Okay Marilyn Munro was not a great but you know what I mean) Michael Caine plays a seedy music entrepreneur who is limping along in obscurity heading career wise somewhere worse than obscurity. He has a brief drunken fling with Little Voice's mother and hears her voice coming from her room. He immediately sees her as an unexploited talent that might just bring him back into the game. The film centres on a concert organised by Caine and its aftermath. Broadly the film is a morality tale in which the mother and Caine get what is coming to them and Little Voice is able to achieve something more than fame and that is normality. The film is both good and bad. Horrocks at its centre is brilliant and it is her talent that is responsible for everything good about it. Her performance scenes are breathtaking made more remarkable by the use of her own voice. It is the other characters and the rest of the film that is the drag. The morality tale is rather telescoped and the character of the mother a repellent and grotesque rather than being real. The end a little bit of an anti-climax. One would imagine that this stems from the difficulty of converting the play to a film. Never the less the performance of Horrocks is so strong and the premise so clever that the film is worth looking at despite its faults.
Rating:
Summary: Jane Horrocks delivers an incredible performance!
Review: Jane Horrocks is most famous for her role as Bubbles, the hopelessly clueless secretary to Jennifer Saunders in the hit British sitcom ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. But five minutes of watching Jane Horrocks perform as Little Voice will make you forget the Bubbles character. Jane Horrocks is an incredible talent and her impersonations of Judy Garland, Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe, and others, are so dead-on that I thought she was lip syncing. As the credits at the end of the film testify, however, she does all her own singing. A strange irony of LITTLE VOICE is that Brenda Blethyn's character of Mari, the overbearing and obnoxious mother to Jane Horrocks's character, is very similar to Edina Monsoon, the equally self-absorbed mother in ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. Anyone familiar with ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS will see a parallel between the mother/daughter relationship in LITTLE VOICE and the mother/daughter relationship in ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS. LITTLE VOICE is a truly unique movie that I would recommend to anyone interested in family dramas.
Rating: 
Summary: If you like Judy Garland and Marilyn Monroe, SEE THIS MOVIE!
Review: I never heard of this movie until it was coming out on video. When I read that the title character (played by Jane Horrocks) sings like Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe and Shirley Bassey (among others), being a fan of these women, I just had to take it home to watch.
What can I say other than I was blown away by the talent of Jane Horrocks. I also thought that the casting of the other characters was great. Michael Caine was absolutely great in his role of the sleazy promoter, and Brenda Blethyn was truly funny in her role as the overbearing, but jealous mother. I also liked Ewan McGregor as the sweet and shy suitor to Horrocks L.V. character.
Whatever you do, go out and either rent or buy this movie, but you gotta see it!
Rating: 
Summary: Horrified - IF I COULD IT'd be NO STARS
Review: You know, I'm usully not a freak out when it comes to outrage on a movie when they abuse someone in the sake of comedy, but this one I just have to. I just watched this awful show on television. It is listed as a comedy and I don't see anything funny about it! An outright abusive, unloving ... of a mother and her gold digger boyfriend abuse and force an obviously troubled psychologically young girl into singing for their own ends instead of getting the girl into therapy! This show is awful.
Rating:
Summary: Tony of Stockport
Review: This could have been a better film without Brenda Blethyn's over the top performance. Her (supposedly) Yorkshire accent was totally devoid of glottal stops and nowhere near laconic enough. Yorkshire people do not rant in that way. Another reviewer referred to it as Cockney. Cockneys live in London. Brenda Blethyn is Welsh and it showed in her speech cadences
Rating:
Summary: Impressive cast.
Review: The most remarkable aspect of this movie is the great performance of all main actors: Jane Horrocks, Brenda Blethyn and Michael Caine, each one of them as impressive as possible and it is hard to say whose act is the best; is it the surprising wonderfully voiced Jane Horrocks, who makes this movie such a satisfying entertainment, Michael Caine who plays all nuances of the greedy agent (one who knows how to psychologically manipulate mother and daughter) or the great Brenda Blethyn whose every twist of face and body is an act of its own. Mari talks all the time, but in the few instances when she has no words - Brenda Blethyn's face says it all. I am not sure that Mari deserves all that she gets in this movie, but she is punished for all her doings in the unforgettable words she hears from both agent and daughter.
Throughout the movie I was expecting some sort of reconciliation between mother and daughter or some recognition from mother towards daughter, some kind words... appreciation...but none of this is here and there is no attempt to cover the real-life truth. This is even sharpened when one understands that yes, the mother is jealous of her daughter and no, the daughter is not just "naturally shy". All falls to place at the movie's climax moment and all is understood.
Although Mari's character is unpleasant, she is so wonderfully portrayed by Brenda Blethyn that I was unable to feel any contempt for her character because above all she is a human being to whom you feel a mixture of both anger and pity.
The second aspect of Little Voice is the music - Jane Horrocks honors the great singers (Shirley Bassey, Marilyn Monroe and Judy Garland) with her performance that tries to bring them as they were and not to glorify herself. This is quite a contradictory statement as the film was built around Jane Horrocks unique talent - but this is only "behind the scenes" knowledge and not what you feel when you see her on screen. Not a "big" movie and does not intend to be one. The splendid perfomrance makes it worth your time.
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