Little Voice

New Times (L.A.) Jean Oppenheimer

This terrific movie manages to invest kitchen-sink realism with the soul of a fairy tale.

Film.com Peter Brunette

Little Voice is that rarity, a filmed adaptation of a stage play that actually works.

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

The trick of this movie is that it's so changeable: You think you've got it nailed and it slithers away to become some other new, fabulous thing.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

By offering opportunities to laugh, cry, and cheer, Little Voice satisfies in a big way.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Little Voice may be more of a confection than a square meal, but it's proof of how good a dish can be when the ingredients are of the highest order.

Rolling Stone Arthur Borman

Taking it's framework from classic fairly-tale characters like Cinderella, the British story of Little Voice is one of compassion, humor and music.

Variety Derek Elley

A small picture with a big heart.

The New York Times Elvis Mitchell

Horrocks's phenomenal mimicry of musical grande dames...makes a splendid centerpiece for the otherwise more ordinary film built around it.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

British actress Jane Horrocks plays Little Voice, and it is a transfixing, tour de force performance.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Many of the elements in this story about a woman who's nearly eclipsed by her overbearing mother are all too familiar, yet the combination is utterly charming.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

The show that Horrocks puts on when she finally takes to the stage is more than worth the wait.

USA Today Susan Wloszczyna

Engagingly offbeat. [4 December 1998, Life, p.13E]

Christian Science Monitor David Sterritt

The movie is often as raucous and seedy as its less-attractive characters, but it gains power from inventive acting and poignant touches.

Chicago Tribune Gene Siskel

A slightly more light-hearted version of the "Shine" story. [4 December 1998, Friday, p.A]

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Little Voice is unthinkable without the special and unexpected talent of its star.

San Francisco Examiner G. Allen Johnson

The drawbacks to Little Voice might sink a lesser movie, but not this one.

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

They're great, every one of them, but the real joy of Little Voice is Horrocks: her impeccable evocation of a timid soul and that eerie voice that sounds so surprising coming out of her.

Salon.com Charles Taylor

Jane Horrocks saves the annoyingly noisy Little Voice.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Ultimately, Little Voice comes to us from an indeterminate place that is no longer the theatre but not quite the movies. Let's call it music videoland -- best just to sit back and enjoy golden-oldie tunes belted out by a quicksilver mimic.

Film Threat Ilana Lindsey

The screenplay has a strong sense of fun but after establishing its concept and characters it doesn't know where to take them.

TV Guide Ken Fox

Actress Jane Horrocks is so good in this drama that you'll hardly notice -- or care -- that the rest of the film isn't quite up to snuff.

Entertainment Weekly Staff(not credited)

The movie adaptation suffers the symptoms of so many stage-to-screen transplants: What seemed thrillingly big and bold in live performance comes across shrunken and hemmed in when "opened up" to fill a feature film.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Joshua Klein

Though it's got some funny one-liners, sight gags, and Blethyn's over-the-top histrionics, Little Voice is often painfully dramatic, right down to its final mother-daughter confrontation.

Austin Chronicle Steve Davis

The decibel level in Little Voice ranges from a delicate whisper to seismic bellowing; aurally speaking, it traverses the spectrum of human sounds.

LA Weekly Manohla Dargis

As mean-spirited toward its working-class characters, especially its women, as it is profoundly unfunny.