Raise Your Voice

RAISE YOUR VOICE *** The theme of a young woman singer who travels to Los Angeles to try for a post-secondary music scholarship from a prestigious summer music school gets ho-hum treatment from director Sean McNamara and scripter Sam Schreiber. And it's a shame that the cute, miscast Hilary Duff doesn't have the singing talents to play the young outstanding vocalist in the making, who goes to the school against her over-protective father's wishes. As she is the "star" at the school, she gets the four-minute musical finalé while the other competitors only get 15 seconds of silver screen moments when everyone ultimately competes for the reward, go figure! Plot holes and inconsistencies abound, but its heart is in the right place.