Singer MARIAH CAREY is desperate to prove her acting critics wrong with an emotionally-wrenching role in new film Push after debuting the film at the Sundance Film Festival in Utah this weekend.

Mimi was savaged by movie reviewers after making her acting debut in 2001's Glitter, a major box office flop.

The singer makes her big-screen return in the drama, in which she plays a welfare case worker looking after a teen-mum coping with her abusive childhood.

Mariah says of her emotional comeback, based on a best-selling novel, "(My character) Mrs. Weiss is sort of the eyes of the audience, the people who don't know anybody like this in their lives.

"Yes it's her job ... but even someone who goes through that every day and sees these horrific things, she hears something that changes her.

"I was just glued to this book when I read it in, I guess '98, and it stays with you."

Filmmakers are reportedly in talks with studios to find a distributor.