Metacritic reviews

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

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

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.

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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.