58
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.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
80
The show that Horrocks puts on when she finally takes to the stage is more than worth the wait.
75
Christian Science Monitor by 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.
90
New Times (L.A.) by Jean Oppenheimer
This terrific movie manages to invest kitchen-sink realism with the soul of a fairy tale.
60
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.
80
Chicago Reader by 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.
90
Little Voice is that rarity, a filmed adaptation of a stage play that actually works.
63
The Globe and Mail (Toronto) by 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.
75
Engagingly offbeat. [4 December 1998, Life, p.13E]