You Light Up My Life (1977)

Overrated and overhyped

hyped garbage

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

I didn't want to like this movie but was drawn in by its goofy charm. It's a veritable treasure trove of 70's cars, clothes, hair, coffee mugs, interior decor, you name it. The dotted swiss maxidresses in the waffle ad alone are pure concentrated midcentury goodness. Despite the brouhaha about the movie's titular song, my favorite one was actually "Do You Have A Piano," which is short, endearing and peppy with great harmonies. Too bad they didn't use it for the opening credits instead of the momentum-draining "California Daydreams".Didi Conn is fine in the role of the young Hollywood hopeful, and easy to like with her wide-eyed fresh faced earnestness, though I think that Melanie Mayron, who plays her bff Annie Gerard, delivers a more subtle and natural performance than Conn, who has a broader, more musical theater or sitcom style. The girl's conflicts with her father are certainly valid, but why would anyone think that the same few 20-year-old jokes could be funny in a comedy act, or that ventriloquism isn't annoying enough in itself? I did like the scene after her onstage meltdown when she says she just learned something very painful but important- that you can only really depend on yourself, and that it's no shame to be alone, in fact it's a necessary part of growing up. (I'm still struggling with that one myself!) Odd that the title song, which plays at the end as she embarks on her new life has the exact opposite meaning: "You give me strength to carry on" ...right after she realizes that strength must come from within. The production values are what I think really crippled this movie. You can barely hear the actors' voices in crowd scenes, actors are inexplicably shot in profile while speaking, so you can't see their faces, Conn looks oddly hunchbacked in her driving scenes, and the exposition before the credits has the amaterurish feeling of a student project. I can see why audiences were disappointed after the huge media blitz it received. You would be, if you expected a high budget blockbuster instead of a slightly awkward little coming of age story with a few catchy pop songs. Too bad the producers didn't have enough faith in the movie to let it stand on its own, but that's Hollywood. Ironic that a running theme in this pic is the misguided fakeness of ad campaigns.Still, I found it to be an enjoyable 2 hr time capsule with decent performances, a plucky underdog lead character and a touching scene or two. I liked Conn's faint Brooklyn accent and the natural prettiness of the actresses at a time when young women were allowed to look like actual human beings on film and not perfect little plastic dolls. I'll take awkward but earnest over slick and shallow anytime!

Staring the talentless, no-hit wonder, DoDo Conn, who lip-synced her way into oblivion in this movie.A poorly written, unbelievably bad script, that it so obviously playing off advertising executives ideas of what Women's minds and romance is supposed to be.For females only, with IQ levels lover than their breast waist size.Perpetuates a degrading image of women and women's fantasy's.Rated as one of the 100 worst movies of all time.I hope you do know that DoDo Conn cannot sing a lick and song nothing in the movie ? It was popular in its day with lonely women who felt the fantasy was "romantic".

A simple story, a great song and an excellent lesson about life. Laurie Robinson ( played to a tee by Didi Conn ) is the child of an entertainer. Her father ( Joe Silver ) is grooming her to follow in his footsteps. However, Laurie's heart and talent is in her music and she finds it her " love ". This is a story of disappointment and overcoming the numerous letdowns we face in life and the one person we can rely on is ourselves and also to like ourselves because if we give in to failures in our lives, we have failed. The title song was schmaltzy at the start but as time goes on, it professes hope and an inspiration. A melody that reaches the core of my heart and will stand as one of most beloved songs of my life

Soap-opera style story about one girl (Didi Conn) pushed into show business (stand-up comedy) by her stand-up comic father and trying to make it into show-biz (acting, singing, anything). There is romance and the title song 'You Light Up My Life.' The song is a major plot device much like Bette Midler's 'Wings Beneath My Wings' is for BEACHES. Debbie Boone's rendition of the song was second only to Bing Crosby's White Christmas as the most popular single in history due in part to listeners attaching a spiritual tone to the lyrics (led by Christian radio stations and the fact that Debbie Boone was part of the Pat Boone family). Debbie Boone was singing the song on every talk and variety show on TV, she was very attractive, very wholesome (once again, Pat Boone's daughter) and TV loved her. This helped bring people into the theaters to see the movie, in fact, was the only reason why people went to see the movie. Debbie Boone was not in the film, nor was her voice. This was very disappointing to most people. Didi Conn (mostly known at the time for wacky characters on TV sitcoms not unlike her GREASE character) didn't sing the song in the film (though she sort of sang in GREASE). If only they had cast Debbie Boone. The song is a classic, the film, alas, is not. WHITE CHRISTMAS (song: 10, movie: 10), BEACHES (song: 10, movie: 7), GREASE (song: 8, movie: 9), YOU LIGHT UP MY LIFE (song: 10, movie: 4).