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Hilary Duff raises her voice
By Steve Beard

It would be impossible to overstate the enormous popularity of teen queen Hilary Duff-especially among young girls. Her solo album sold 4.8 million copies and her latest record debuted at #2 on the charts. Blender magazine calls her "a 21st century Doris Day who sings and acts so winningly that it has garnered her a rumored $25 million fortune."

Her new movie Raise Your Voice will attract the girls who have grown up watching Duff as TV's Lizzie McGuire. Smart parents will not only drive their daughters to the movie, they might want to actually sit in the back and catch the flick. The movie probes a handful of parent-child issues worth discussing: coping with death and tragedy, deceiving a parent, and pursuing your dreams.

Duff plays Terri Fletcher, a happy-go-lucky girl who dreams of attending a prestigious music school in Los Angeles. Her mom, brother, and free-spirited aunt cannot be more supportive. The one impediment to her dream is her dad, who has all the lovability of Mussolini. 

Terri's life further unravels when her brother is killed by a drunk driver. Her dad becomes more protective and overbearing, while she wilts in mourning. In the meantime, she had been accepted to the music school for a summer program. Her mom and aunt conspire to circumvent the dad's decision. In the midst of the deception (over which Terri is riddled with guilt), she explores Los Angeles with an eccentric cast of pierced-lipped, magenta-haired, and tattooed classical music students who compete for a scholarship.

In an era of "American Idol" competitions and karaoke machines, the theme of Raise Your Voice will resonate with Duff fans. For older viewers, this romantic drama will seem like a cheesy and sanitized version of the 1980s movie and TV show, Fame.

Perhaps the most surprising feature of the movie was its matter-of-fact handling of faith. Duff's character is shown singing in a church choir, praying in a sanctuary, and a Celtic cross holds a significant iconic role in the movie. While dropping in religious images and references does not excuse the shortcomings of a film, it does signal a very interesting turn in our culture.

"I think that faith is a big piece of a lot of people's lives and I think that it was nice to have a character for whom faith was simply a part of her life," screenwriter Sam Schreiber confesses. "As she goes through her trials in the movie-of which there are many-she has something that she can lean on."

Even though this is Schrieber's first screenplay, he wasn't shy about including a component of faith into this musical, coming-of-age film. "In the wake of movies like Passion . you have seen a change in Hollywood where faith at one point was kind of a no-go zone and now it has a little bit of cha-ching to it," he said. "It is certainly not going to do you any harm to incorporate it and it possibly might do you some good. Whereas previously, you might have steered away from it, and said, 'Oh why do we really need that scene in the church,' now you can say, 'Okay, well that is acceptable for that character.'"

For her part, Duff does not shy away from her character's dependence on faith. "When I was younger, we were very much churchgoers," she admits. "Now that things have gotten a little bit busier and I have gotten a little bit older, I don't necessarily think that you have to go to church to be a believer. I travel so much and I work so hard, but I have faith in that kind of thing and I pray all the time and I believe in God."

While some may find Duff's talk of faith a bit ambiguous, she may be far more indicative of the upcoming generation of young women-non-sectarian, but spiritually-minded. The British edition of Cosmo magazine incorporated a spirituality column this year for the first time in its provocative history. "I've come to the painful realization that men and shoes are not enough to make me happy. The key to true contentment lies elsewhere," wrote columnist Hannah Borno.

The same longing was felt at Seventeen magazine this year when they began including a faith column. "I feel, and had sensed that my readers felt, that there was an entire magazine that wasn't speaking to a part of them," said editor-in-chief Atoosa Rubenstein. "I just noticed more and more that our readers were talking about their faith."

Raise Your Voice is not meant to be evangelistic, but it may foretell a more realistic depiction of otherwise soul-less characters. The trick, of course, is doing it well. That will be a true test for future screen endeavors.

Schreiber believes that it will be very difficult for Hollywood to emulate the particular success of The Passion of the Christ. "It was done once, nobody saw it coming, and any attempt to replicate that is going to feel commercial and fake. But, I think that it did wake people up a little bit to something that exists."

Steve Beard is the editor of Good News magazine and the creator of Thunderstruck.org.



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