Out of Sync (2000)

A hapless and desperate music producer hires a talented housewife to lip sync the songs of an attractive but talentless starlet to further his and her music career, and tries to keep up the charade when their album becomes a hit.

Director:

Graeme Campbell

Writer:

Eric Williams

Stars:

Gail O'Grady, Peter Outerbridge, Stewart Bick

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Gail O'Grady	...	Maggie Stanley
Peter Outerbridge	...	Roger Deacon
Stewart Bick	...	Lowell Levitt
Harvey Atkin	...	Sidney Golden
Jerry Ciccoritti	...	Buddo
Richard Chevolleau	...	Skeesix
Kari Wuhrer	...	Sunni
Ryan Dennis	...	Josh
Jonathan Whittaker	...	Stan (as Jonathan Whitaker)
Isabella Fink	...	Sadie
Michelyn Emelle	...	Rita
Ryan Stever	...	Kyle
Garath Strachan	...	Jimmy
Alexander Zanetti	...	Antonio
Sharmaine Ryan	...	Singer #1

Storyline

Roger Deacon, a down-and-out record producer, is given the job of making a singing star out of an industry mogul's girlfriend, an attractive but talentless starlet. He discovers a housewife with a powerful singing voice and decides to secretly use her to lip sync the other woman's voice for record recordings as a path to fame for her and him.

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Plot Keywords:

music producer | music industry | lip synching | singer

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Taglines:

What you see isn't necessarily what you hear.

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Genres:

Comedy | Drama | Music

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Certificate:

TV-14

Details

Country:

Canada USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

12 July 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

Lip Service

Filming Locations:

Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Company Credits

Production Co:

Hearst Entertainment Productions, TVA International, VH1 Original Movies

Technical Specs

Runtime:

93 min

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

The songs that Maggie Stanley (Gail O'Grady) sings in the movie are actually sung by Karen LeBlanc. So the movie is actually double out of sync.

User Reviews

It's Milli Vanilli, only sexier...

Because I knew this was a VH1 Original, I knew not to expect much of the movie. I was right. This movie tells the story of washed-up record producer, Deacon. Deacon's jet plane back to the glamour he once knew arrives in the form of Sunni, the new "it" girl of Golden Records with the body of a goddess and voice comparable to nails on a chalkboard. Deacon takes on the project of producing Sunni's record, convinced he can make her voice sound reasonable using studio magic. This plan fails to work. Enter Maggie Stanley, a housewife blessed with a beautiful singing voice while cursed with a severe case of stage fright. Deacon decides to replace Sunni's voice with Maggie's, and chaos ensues from there when Sunni's career rises farther than Deacon ever wanted to. Realizing he is in love with the very married Maggie, Deacon's conscience takes hold of him, instructing him to tell the truth about Sunni, much to the chagrin of Lowell, a record exec at Golden who wants to keep this secret under lock and key.

Peter Outerbridge, an actor I had previously never heard of, shines as Deacon, a down-on-his-luck, believable, and very lovable character, who, despite having experienced the highs of fame and fortune and the lows of bankruptcy and flops on Billboard, still manages to find a kindred soul in the stage fright-stricken Maggie. Kari Wuhrer, as Sunni, brings an extremely annoying sense of innocence to her character, who is supposed to come off as a shrewd businesswoman in a Barbie doll package. Gail O'Grady gives a so-so performance. She has delivered a better performance because she been given better scripts to work with. The whole thing movie is lacking in its sense of direction, especially with the romantic "quadrangle" involving Sidney Golden, Sunni, Deacon, Maggie, and Stan, Maggie's husband. So much more could have been explored between Deacon and Maggie. Perhaps the writer took the route he did to keep Deacon's "good guy" image.

If you happen to catch this movie between back-to-back Behind the Movie marathons (isn't that what they ALWAYS air on VH1?...), go ahead and kill some time, but don't make a point of watching it.