‘Raise Your Voice’ more music video than movie

Hilary Duff’s new picture, “Raise Your Voice,” isn’t much of a movie. But it’s a great long-form music video.

We get to see Hilary rocking. Hilary singing ballads. Hilary walking on the beach at sunset, looking soulful. Hilary belting out “Joy to the World” (the “Jeremiah was a bullfrog” one, not the Handel one).

What we don’t get to see is a film with anything other than the corniest approaches to plot, conflict and character.

Duff stars as Terri, a squeaky-clean teen living in the suburbs of Flagstaff, Ariz. She’s a talented singer, eager to attend a summer music workshop in L.A., but her overprotective father won’t let her.

But, with the aid of an understanding mom and a free spirited aunt (you can tell she’s free spirited because she drinks wine and wears a scarf), Terri secretly sneaks off to the big bad city anyway. And finds love, inspiration, confidence and all that jazz – along with the chance to break into song every 10 minutes.

Duff is a pleasant enough singer, and she has some competent people around her, including Oliver James, who first did Cute British Boy duty in last year’s “What a Girl Wants,” and John Corbett, who has some fun as an eccentric music teacher.

The movie itself, though, isn’t much more than an excuse to give Duff a lot of musical numbers. Parents are ludicrously unreasonable or unnecessarily deceived. Duff’s fellow students hate her for no reason, then like her for no reason. Music – including fully rehearsed numbers – pops up with calculated “spontaneity.”

At least it covers up the grinding sounds of the gears, as they maneuver the movie’s third act into place.