Little Voice 1998, Rated R

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Starring Jane Horrocks, Brenda Blethyn. Released to DVD on June 15, 1999.

Standard logic dictates that these more unusual characters would be easier for actors to portray than your run-of-the-mill Bruce Willis character; there are any number of interesting positions an actor could take to both flesh out the character at hand and make him three-dimensional. However, quite the opposite is true, as it takes a far greater amount of effort to satisfyingly convince an audience that a peculiar and curious character is realistic than it does to make a detective or baseball player seem believable. It is for this reason that most of the February and March acting awards go to those actors playing extraordinary characters. Two actors who were nominated for an Academy Award and a Golden Globe, respectively, for their performances here in Little Voice were Brenda Blethyn and Michael Caine.

Jane Horrocks stars in Little Voice as LV (not coincidentally, short for Little Voice), a virtual recluse in the house she lives in with her mother, Mari, played by Blethyn. Horrocks' days consist of padding around in pink pajamas and listening to records by Judy Garland, Marilyn Monroe, and Billie Holiday. Over time, Horrocks has picked up the ability to startlingly and realistically imitate the aforementioned crooners. She is discovered one night by a rather sleazy talent agent Blethyn brought home, portrayed by Michael Caine. Caine and Blethyn, realizing they are sitting on a gold mine in the agoraphobic Horrocks, attempt to put her on stage to perform. The results-until the lights go out-are comically, just as one would expect them to be.

The biggest surprise of Little Voice was not in Horrocks ability to imitate Marilyn Monroe, or the musical duels between Tom Jones and Judy Garland, but Ewan McGregor's soft turn as Billy, a shy, phone repairman who has a crush on Horrocks. With a resume of films like Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, A Life Less Ordinary, and, of course, Star Wars: Episode One, McGregor has made a career out of playing loud, sometimes arrogant characters who occasionally know how to use the all-encompassing power of The Force to their benefit. Here, McGregor positively shined as the reluctant, quiet Billy, a character who was interested in Horrocks for her personality, not her talent. McGregor's Billy was the perfect balance to Blethyn's loud-mouthed and humorously horny, Mari. The only time Mari wasn't talking in Little Voice was when she was lighting up another cigarette... and from then, it was only a matter of seconds before her shrill, non-stop judgments returned.

Creating characters who are both identifiable and quirky is a daunting task for any writer to attempt-Kirk Jones, Waking Ned Devine's writer/director fell quite short on this respect-but Little Voice's writer/director, Mark Herman, did not disappoint here. From a shut-in who sings show tunes, to a pigeon loving repairman, Herman has given audiences as wide a variety of characters as they could possibly want.

Little Voice was warm, charming, witty, and simply delightful. If you don't find yourself smiling with Caine's rendition of "It's Over", peppered with profanity and shot with remarkable in-your-face camera work, you may have to check yourself for a pulse. This isn't a laugh a minute film like There's Something About Mary, but as a warm comedy is leaps and bounds away from the other warm, charming, British movie, Waking Ned Devine. See Little Voice.