Shania: A Life in Eight Albums

I found this movie's title to be very misleading. Rather than A Life in Eight Albums I saw Eilleen: The early years. Less a story and more a poorly assembled collection of glimpses that the viewer is roughly shoved through. Many simplified and stereotyped. It comes across as an unsophisticated low budget attempt to show moments from the story of the woman who will become Shania. The film hops and drags through the first hour. While it does move better towards the end, it is not a significant improvement. It's occasionally hard to follow what is happening or who people are unless you have some familiarity with her early life already. Hard to stick it out to the end. A few of the acting performances are good, but few are consistent. The sound is of decent quality, but the music used is basic and repetitive.

Despite some clever moments and a spunky performance by Meredith Hamilton, this film was doomed to failure by disjointed scripting and direction. It was such a structural mess that one can almost sense the editor's panic as he scrambled to establish some sort of order and flow to scene after scene that neither ended nor built towards a plot development or theme of consequence. The repetitive episodic structure of our heroine experiencing some frustration or tragedy and immediately retiring to her room to mumble lyrics and stumble over chords (to what, not incidentally, sound like really bad, adolescent songs) was tiresome the second time through, let alone after the seventh or eighth time. "I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry", sung about five times during the film, was Twain's through line, but that emotion could as easily represent the mental state of the bewildered viewer.

A particular black hole sucking the dramatic life out of the film was writer Shelley Eriksen's pen paralysis when it came to romance. While we often find films side-tracked by the paradox of the needless, requisite love interest, it's clear that Twain's music and persona are, curiously, as much about the importance of love and family as feminism and ambition, so getting these relationships into frame is certainly germane. Puzzlement, however, pretty much defines the response of the viewer to any of the relationships depicted here, whether the unexplained marital difficulties of her parents or Twain's own serial lovers, who drop from sight so peremptorily one can be forgiven for suspecting that it was because the actors were on one day contracts.

Megan Follows must have wondered how she got involved in this project, though truth to tell, she has some awkward moments herself in a generally solid performance. I'll give her the benefit of the doubt, though - the script is so underwritten that several fine actors struggle to bridge the gap between their characters and the meagre words left to them. However, Jerry Ciccoritti's toneless direction is as much to blame; scenes are emotionally flat either through the confusion of the actors left to sort through this mess themselves or Ciccoritti's inability to convey a sense of where and how he felt the scenes must progress.

Twain has a classic rags to riches and country heartache story to tell (cranked up a notch since this film's release by her recent split from producer/husband Mutt Lange). I hope somebody sees the potential and has the wherewithal to enlist Twain's aid in getting it right.

Shania Twain a life in eight albums is a film that takes die hard Shania Twain fans on a journey to discover the early life of one of the worlds most popular female powerhouse singers in country music history.

I loved the movie from the get go! I thought it was entertaining and it gives us all an eye opener as to how she grew up in her humble beginnings in Timmins Ontario Canada when she was known only as Eileen Twain.

It gave us a taste of her being taught the Ojibwe way by her step grandfather, her relationship with her parents and siblings down to her struggles to make it as a singer.

It shows the viewer what her pushy mother was like although she was encouraging Eileen to pursue a career in music and her step fathers loving and caring nature towards her and her sisters.

The tragic death of her parents and the hard ships that Shania went through to make it in the music business is what interested me the most in this film. Shenae Grimes and Meredith Henderson give outstanding performances as Shania. I was blown away with the acting ability of those two girls,the true portrayal of Shania down to her mannerisms was eerie.

In one scene where Meredith was playing Shania during a press conference talking I was stunned when she did that familiar head turn and the tone of her voice that she used.

If I had closed my eyes at that precise moment I would have sworn it was Shania herself speaking.

Being a fan of hers I have to say that it was awesome to see her early life depicted, although it would have been great to see the sky rocketing success she made of her career be depicted as well.

Aside from that I came away from the film being proud of being an Ontario Canada fan of hers,her grit and her steely determination to make it in the music business as well as her amazing voice are what makes me be a fan of hers for life.

Quotes

SHARON TWAIN : "Your going to be a big star Leenie!Because of your voice! Because of the way you sing!All we need is the one break! One break for everyone else to figure it out!"

Eileen : " Excuse me! You have to let me off!I'm going the wrong way!"

Conductor : " I beg your pardon!I can't let you off!"

Eileen (pointing at the conductor in anger): " No! No! No! You need to stop this train and let me off!"

Conductor : " Young lady you'll have to get back in your seat!"

Eileen: " I'm supposed to make it to Toronto to do a TV show and I'm not gonna miss it because your afraid you'll get into trouble!"

Conductor : " Young lady! We don't stop this train!"

Eileen:"I'm not going to be cold and I'm not afraid of the wilderness!"

Conductor: "Young lady no matter what age you are! I just!"

Eileen(raising her voice and showing the conductor her outfit): "My mother sold her ticket to buy me this outfit!And when she finds out that she wasted her ticket and that you didn't stop this train and you didn't let me off! And I miss that TV show ! She's going to kill me and then she's going to come looking for you!"

Eileen singing into microphone " I've got to practice my technique!"

Sharon : " Give me the car keys!"

Jerry: " Why you'll be back in two hours?"

Jerry : " My good shirt! I'm going to need it when I meet with those pale face bean towner's!"

Eileen ( looking up from her sewing his shirt): " Relax Tonto! I'll finish it!"

Sharon: " People come into your life for a reason Leenie and they need a nudge to know the reason!" Eileen: " Yea a nudge not a push!"

Eileen yelling at two girls who were gossiping about her : " For your information its not as bad as your hair cut!To tell you the truth I'm not screwing Katowski I used to screw Bell! And seriously you should try it! I'd like to see how far it gets you!"

Eileen: " Shania! What band are you?" Seamstress : " Anishnaabe/Ojibwe!" Eileen: " Yea me too! Well my dad!" Eileen " What does Shania mean?" Seamstress: "I think it means on my way!"

if Shania: A Life In Eight Albums is accurate in the details or not, since I am but a fan of Shania. To me, it depicted a pretty good version of her life, having read books and articles about her.

The acting was okay, it seemed unnatural at parts which made the film awkward to watch. Especially scenes between the mother and "teenage-Shania". Overall, I think the whole surreal story was generally very intriguing. The actress that played Mary Bailey was great and really made her character the maternal figure that was lacking in the film.

The best part I thought was the beginning, where the youngest version of Shania was singing in a bar in the middle of the night. First of all, WOW! What a talented singer! Second, it was the only acting that seemed real. Mother pressuring young country star potential to be the best she can be. And from what I've read, it was the most accurate.

There were a couple undeveloped plot-lines such as when the mother left home in a rage of fury and was back in a matter of scenes sitting on the couch laughing.

In my honest opinion, this film failed to compare to what Shania is now, and if I had filmed it, I would've taken a completely different approach to make the star's history as important as her present life because it's what got her where she is now. It was just really difficult to compare this to one of the greatest musicians of our generation.