Mark Reviews Movies: LINDA RONSTADT: THE SOUND OF MY VOICE

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 12, 2019

Linda Ronstadt deserves praise—for her voice, for her versatility as a singer, for her refusal to follow the easy path, for her determination to make of her career what she wanted. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice contains no shortage of praise. It does, however, possess a significant shortage of insight.

This is yet another documentary that presents a straightforward biography, with constant commentary from talking heads, as the best and most its subject deserves. It's basically an and-then documentary, as in one can imagine every transition in the movie to be prefaced by someone saying, "And then," before stating what happened next in the subject's life.

Directors Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman's non-fiction, biographical treatment of Ronstadt—"the Beyoncé of her day," as someone pigeonholes her instead of actually trying to go into any specifics—is particularly shallow. Save for an account of her pre-fame days and some mentions of romantic relationships and pointing out significant deaths in the family, the movie primarily focuses on the singer's career.

She played clubs in Los Angeles, and then a manager signed her. This song became a hit, and then she won a lot of awards. Her albums sold in the multi-millions, and then she wanted to do a passion project. On and on it goes. Little beyond the big stuff is offered.

The good news, perhaps, is that Ronstadt career, until she retired in 2011 because of the effects of Parkinson's disease on her voice, was varied, from her early days of folk, to adopting country, to breaking into rock and R&B, to performing Gilbert and Sullivan on Broadway, and to her passion projects (an album of standards and another of Mexican folk songs). The interview subjects, mostly musicians and other industry professionals, have many glowing things to say, but they're nothing that we can't see and hear firsthand from the showcase of Ronstadt's performances shown here.

The performances are great, obviously, as a reminder of how transcendent Ronstadt's voice could be, but despite having access to the singer, the filmmakers strangely only take advantage of her presence to provide narration and for a bittersweet epilogue, in which the singer, her hands trembling, sings with a pair of family members. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice comes across as nothing more than a highlight reel.

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