LITTLE VOICE  (1998)  ***

Reviewed 12/13/98

A reclusive woman with a great voice is pushed by a talent agent toward a singing career. The cast here puts on the best ensemble work of this year. Jane Horrocks' talent for imitating the voices of singers past is extraordinary and so is her acting as she conveys a pained, introverted creature while speaking very little. Brenda Blethlyn is perfection in her portrayal of Horrocks' boisterous mother, and Michael Caine gives his best performance ever as the desperate talent agent. Director Mark Herman does well to transcend the story's stage origins to make the film quite cinematic, but the story itself unfortunately never reaches its potential. Blethlyn and Caine's characters tie up too much screen time in the beginning and get too little at the end while Horrocks' L.V. never gets fully developed. L.V.'s relationship with her deceased father needed a great deal more subtlety in its depiction. The amazing feat by the actors gives sympathy to the characters. The story does not. Also, the film treats Sadie, Blethlyn's best friend, with great cruelty. Ironically, like L.V., she does not speak much, but because she is fat and untalented, she is the butt of many of the film's jokes and humiliations. Still, the film is more than worth seeing for the performances alone.