Un rêve à l'epreuve

Holly Lovell (Lindsey Haun) lives in a small Texas town with her mother Wanda (Virginia Madsen). Her father is long absent. She is desperate to go to the Haverty music school in Philadelphia. Her mother secretly films her singing for the school application. Her boyfriend Tyler (Aaron Ashmore) proposes but she holds off. She is surprised by the school's midterm acceptance. Unbeknownst to her, the family home has been foreclosed. Ditz is her new rich troubled roommate friend. Her competition Angela pines for Grant who takes a liking to Holly. She struggles with the unfamiliar classical music. With the car breaking down, Wanda takes a nearby waitress job working for Dee (Jayne Eastwood). She keeps all of it a secret while staying with her embarrassed daughter Holly.

This is loosely based on a book written by Britney Spears and her mother which is loosely based on her life. Any resemblance to reality is strictly an accident. They do get producer credit and a lot of references in the movie. The story is basically not terrible. Haun and Madsen are perfectly good actresses. Holly is a little self-obsessed and petty. Her enemies are cartoonish but that's alright. She has a few too many supporters which detracts from her underdog status. I also would get rid of her hometown boyfriend whom she leaves behind way too easily. There are a few too many miscalculations from the standard formula. This should be easily likable but it doesn't completely work.

People like to complain about TV movies a lot. I have one question. Is there ever a TV movie that is perfect?

Anyway, I find that the movie was good. Considering that I am not a Britney Spears fan and the fact that there was a lot of Britney in it, I thought I was going to hate the movie, but I actually enjoyed it. Though, at some points things seemed to be repeating themselves and it got to be a bit long, there was just something there that was good and made me watch it to the end.

This movie isn't for everybody. If you can't stand pop or classical music, don't watch. If you can't stand some predictable moments don't watch. But if you want to watch a movie that has an uplifting feeling and lets people know that everyone can do whatever they want to in life, a real good family movie, this is it.

This 2004 TV-movie is based on Britney and Lynne Spears' novel "A Mother's Gift", and was co-executive-produced by the pair. The heroine, Texan teenager Holly Lovell (played by Lindsey Haun), is an aspiring singer and Britney fan - she has a poster of the notorious pop princess on her bedroom wall and Ms Spears' song "Stronger" appears on a number of occasions and in several guises.

One of the vocal profs at a posh conservatoire sees innate talent in Holly's performance at a local jamboree and successfully argues her case for a probationary try-out for a scholarship, despite opposition from his colleagues. Holly's mom makes huge financial sacrifices to get her daughter a semester to prove herself.

Making Britney's "Stronger" her showcase in Vocal Majors doesn't go down too well with the prof, who makes it clear that a classical performance will be required if Holly is to progress any further. Meanwhile, the hot guy of the class hits on her, much to the disgust of bitchy Angela, star soprano, who considers him hers by right.

Meanwhile, Holly's attempts at disguising her redneck origins aren't helped by her mom, who takes a job at a local diner after her car breaks down, and a rift develops between them. It's more than a little unfair on her mom, though, since she's been doing everything she can to avoid showing her daughter up - even declining some romantic enticements from one of the other profs.

Angela sabotages Holly's audition by getting her drunk on vodka, but classmate Zoe offers to help her, and she is given a chance to redeem herself in the class recital. She becomes quite proficient at singing the Habanera from Bizet's "Carmen" once she studies up on her French - and even earns some applause from the previously sceptical academicians.

Zoe turns out to have a secret other side as a rock singer and invites Holly and her pal Portia (aka Ditz) along to her next gig. Zoe calls Holly up on stage and they do a lively duet while Ditz gets rapidly out of it on drink and drugs and ends up in hospital.

Hospital-bound Ditz gives Holly a lesson in mother-appreciation, which is taken very much to heart. Holly makes it up with her mom and invites her to the recital. Her mom feels free to phone the prof and they go to the recital together.

At the recital, Holly does a fine job with the Habanera, even managing to overshadow Angela's Mozart, but as she reaches her final note lights go on, musicians and dancers appear on the stage and she, Zoe and others deliver an aspirational rock song about being strong. They get a standing ovation.

It's a quiet but heartwarming little TV movie, fine for a wet afternoon. Some of the more obvious clichés of college life are avoided, but quite a few are not. There's no great depth in the acting, and if Lindsey Haun had been called Britney Spears the critics would have piled in with predictable savagery. Best turn comes from the ever-excellent Virginia Madsen as Holly's mother.

ok, I thought "not ANOTHER britney spears film" when I saw the preveiws. But, as a matter of fact, I really enjoyed it! The actress who plays the main character (Holly Luvel) was Lindsey Haun, who I happen to be a big fan of. She has a better voice than Britney, and does a really good job with the texan accent and 'twang' even though she comes from L.A. The songs are all so good! The last and final number goes from a song in Carmen, to a dance and hip-hop sort of song. The film really prooves that anything is possible even if everything goes wrong, and that even if your at an all time low, you can turn things around. I recommend this to everyone, and if you don't watch it just because it was from britney. Afterall, I happen to think that is why america is soo messed up, but the film is still really good!

This movie is entertaining enough due to an excellent performance by Virginia Madsen and the fact that Lindsey Haun is lovely. However the reason the movie is so predictable is that we've seen it all before. I've haven't read the book A Mother's Gift but I hope for Britney and Lynne Spears sake it is completely different than this movie. Unless you consider ending a movie with what is essentially a music video an original idea, the entire movie brings to mind the word plagiarized.