Andrew Walker BBC News Profiles Unit

That's my girl: Charlotte Church and Craig Ferguson

Charlotte Church burst on to the music scene as an 11-year-old, becoming an international star. She is now consolidating her fame with a move into films.

I'll Be There has a reasonable script, a distinguished cast and is directed competently by Craig Ferguson, who wrote the film - with Philip McGrade - and also stars in it.

But the film is let down by the obvious limitations of its young star, singer Charlotte Church.

Send us your views on the film

This is not a bad movie. In fact, it is the sort of uncontroversial family fare perfect for Sunday evening television.

The plot is straightforward. Washed-out rocker Paul Kerr (Ferguson) has a motorbike accident after a drink-fuelled rampage in his rambling manor house and winds up in hospital.

Unknown to him, he has a teenage daughter Olivia (Charlotte Church), the product of a brief liaison with a former girlfriend (Jemma Redgrave), now a successful businesswoman.

The redoubtable Joss Ackland and Charlotte Church

Father and daughter meet and, much to the consternation of Olivia's mother, forge a close friendship.

The production is engaging enough, though Ferguson's character is not that dissolute and Redgrave, in one of those "serious" roles for which she is renowned, has a Welsh accent which ebbs and flows like the tide at Penarth.

Strangely enough, one character bemoans the influx into his village of "London stockbrokers practising their comedy Welsh accents."

Pointless swearing

Joss Ackland, as Church's geriatric rocker grandfather, delights as always but makes all too brief an appearance and Phyllida Law, playing Church's singing teacher, is almost criminally underused.

The greatest weakness in the film is Church herself. Apart from the fact that her character, a teenager with a passion for singing, oddly seems to have no friends her own age, Church is leaden and lacks passion, appearing ill-at-ease.

As Olivia puts it at one point: "I didn't feel anything. No connection."

Variable accent: Jemma Redgrave

Even so, there are hints, especially during her scenes with Redgrave, of some acting ability. But only just.

Church manages to raise her game when she sings but, even so, her rendition of Summertime is lightweight and unmemorable.

And I can see no point whatsoever for including three or four instances of swearing in a film which otherwise appeals to all the family.

I'll Be There - rated PG-13 - opens across the UK on 20 June.

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