I'll Be There Details

Young Welsh singer and tabloid fixture Charlotte Church tries to progress from diva to film star with this small-fry attempt at a musical comedy. She shines throughout the story — co-written by actor Craig Ferguson — as the Cardiff teenager who discovers her real father (Ferguson) is a washed-up former pop star and she was the result of a brief fling he had with her groupie mother (Jemma Redgrave). Naturally he discovers that his long-lost daughter is a singing prodigy and sets about carving out a career for her, giving Church the chance to tackle a variety of musical styles from Gershwin to Motown. This is all very cosy but also desperately old-fashioned — positioning Church as a modern-day Deanna Durbin — and is undone by the often uncomfortable marrying of her soprano voice to non-operatic material.

Bland comedy intended as a vehicle for a teenage singer; it won't take her very far.