You Light Up My Life

1977

Drama / Music / Romance

2
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 17% · 6 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Spilled 25% · 500 ratings
IMDb Rating 4.8/10 10 881 881

Plot summary

Laurie has been in show business since she was a child. Her dream is to be a singer, songwriter and actress. Her father wants her to be a comedian like him and Laurie only tries because it pleases her father. But she is a lousy comedian. She auditions for everything and is engaged to Ken, but Ken does not understand her needs. She has a one night stand with Chris, only to later find that he is a director. She has many emotions that have not yet been addressed and she must face them before she can get on with her life.

Director

Top cast

Stephen Nathan as Ken Rothenberg
Melanie Mayron as Annie Gerrard
Didi Conn as Laurie Robinson
Eileen Dietz as Bridesmaid
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
834.95 MB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 1
1.51 GB
1920*1080
English 2.0
NR
us  
23.976 fps
1 hr 31 min
Seeds 5

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by bkoganbing 5 / 10

She's not a second banana comedian

When you come right down to it You Light Up My Life has one silly plot premise. Young Didi Conn is the daughter of second rate comedian Joe Silver who after living with this girl into her adulthood can't get it into his head that the young woman is not a second banana comedian. But he makes her wear a clown outfit, gives her a ventriloquist dummy and says with his tutelage she'll be funny.Now he has to have heard her sing and heard her sing the songs she herself composed. Conn decides to spread her wings and fly, but in the process she loses Stephen Nathan the guy she was going to marry and finds out that producer Michael Zaslow whom she had a fling with is a rat. What the story is about is how Conn decides to deal with all those heartaches. And you're not sure she can because she is a fragile thing.One of those songs that she wrote is the title song which was a mega-hit for Debbie Boone in 1977 and responsible for the film getting an Oscar for Best Song. The song really makes the film even though Conn only lipsynches the part.Try as I might I could not wrap my mind around the fact the Silver legacy in show business had to be perpetuated by Conn the Clown and that a professional couldn't recognize talent. In the same situation in Ziegfeld Girl, Judy Garland was a second banana to her father Charles Winninger, but he saw what he was holding back. You're not sure that Silver ever does.On the plus side Didi Conn is a touching figure and gives a wonderful performance as an eager show business hopeful. For her and for the song you should see the movie.
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Reviewed by mark.waltz 5 / 10

Film forgotten, song lingers on...Unfortunately.

Ask anybody what Academy Award Winning song they got sick of after hearing it over and over, and they'll probably say "My Heart Will Go On" from "Titanic". But ask anybody that question for film songs written before that Celine Dion smash hit and any one over the age of 50 will say "You Light Up My Life". Ask them about the movie, and they won't remember a thing about it. Didi Conn, who has gone down in film immortality as Frenchie in "Grease", had a rare lead in this sweet but cumbersome movie, and while she's talented and charming, the dubbing for her here by Kacey Cisyk (not Debbie Boone who had the hit single and sang it on the Academy Awards) does not fit either her personality or her squeaky speaking voice.

The loveable Didi is the daughter of a vaudevillian (Joe Silver), still going even though vaudeville has allegedly been dead forever. He still gets work somehow as an Edgar Bergen like comic, not really very funny, and it's sad to see Conn sitting on his lap as if she was Charlie McCarthy or Mortimer Snerd. What Conn really wants to do is break into the music business, and when she sings (through the dubbing), she seems to have what it takes. A dashing director ("Guiding Light's" Michael Zaslow, then on a break from the soap as the villainous Roger Thorpe) takes an interest in her, but his motivations don't really seem all sincere. They are an interesting example of mismatched pairing, but thanks to the charm of Didi Conn, it appears to have a chance.

This is one of those quickly forgotten films that has pleasant but mostly forgettable songs by Joseph Brooks (who also wrote, directed and acts in the film), although one outside the legendary title song ("The Morning Of My Life") did have potential. Between the dated comedy, sappiness of the theme and the odd pairing of Conn and Zaslow and hamminess of Joe Silver (no relation to Phil Silvers even with a slight resemblance), this seems to have been out of place in a movie year that had "Annie Hall", "Goodbye Girl" and "Fun With Dick & Jane" for light romantic comedies that have stood the test of time and big blockbusters like "Rollercoaster" and especially "Star Wars". By the time of the big build up to Conn's lip-syncing the lyrics to the title song in the conclusion, you are well ready for it to end.

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