Grace of My Heart

Grace of My Heart (1996) is an Allison Anders film I always thought was great. 

I think Illeana Douglas is really cool, yes, but the thing that makes this movie so memorable for me is the music. 

The story is sort of a loose, fictional adaptation of the Carol King story and begins here with the lead character, Denise Waverly, winning a singing contest with her rendition of this great song, "Hey There," which was made famous by Rosemary Clooney way back before we were born. 

Douglas' performance is great here, but the thing for me is that voice, which is not hers but rather belongs to outstanding singer Kristen Vigard. Here - see if you agree.



The succeeding scene sees our heroine, having won a recording audition which was the prize from the singing contest, in the studio doing another really neat song called, "Another World." 

It's Kristen Vigard's beautifully expressive voice again but this time the song was written specially for the film by none other than Brill Building veteran, Gerry Goffin with Los Lobos. 

(It's fun to see a clean-shaven Richard Schiff here, too.)



Lots of really great songwriters contributed to this soundtrack, actually. 

Here's one written by Elvis Costello and Burt Bacharach. 

Just an amazing song sung, again, by Kristen Vigard. 

This is called, "God Give Me Strength."

Here are the rest of the soundtrack credits - an impressive talent roster.