Rating: 

The Info

Directed by: Wes Craven
Written by: Pamela Gray
Starring: Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, Angela Bassett, Cloris Leachman, Gloria Estefan
Produced by: Susan Kaplan, Marianne Maddalena, Alan Miller, Walter Scheuer

The Nutshell

A gifted violinist in need of a job teaches music in Harlem, touching the lives of her students.

The Review

    At first glance, Music of the Heart is yet another formulaic Hollywood feel-good film. Internet film critic James Berardinelli gets it right when he says "think Dangerous Minds meets Mr. Holland's Opus". For truly, Music of the Heart is an almost perfect merging of the two films' plots. However, director Wes Craven, departing from his traditional horror base, manages to infuse his film with something that doesn't become clear until the final scene: an adoration for the violin.

    The violin has become the instrument of choice in 1999, with Music of the Heart following in the superior The Red Violin's footsteps. Both films capture its elegance and perfection, giving the audience a look at one of the most respected and classical instruments in existence. Almost every scene in Heart has a violin in it, usually being played. The fact that hearing so much violin (often poorly played by school-children) does not get annoying shows the balance that Craven achieved in making his film.

    Unfortunately, this wonderful tribute to a challenging instrument is only in the background. The main focus of the film is the story of Roberta Guaspari, played by the ever-amazing Meryl Streep. Don't get me wrong here; this true story is uplifting and the kind of thing that more films should be based on. In all the creepiness of 1999's films (The Blair Witch Project, The Sixth Sense, Stir of Echoes), a tale based on love and goodness of heart could not be more welcome. However, any uplifting that Roberta's story could possibly achieve is horribly marred by the manipulative way in which it is told.

    We first meet Roberta after her husband has left her for another woman. She is depressed and her life is stagnant. Accustomed to constantly moving (her hubby is a NAVY man), Roberta finds herself without any roots. She is a great violinist, and has a degree in teaching which has hardly been put to any use. Other than her two children and her mother (Leachman), Roberta is adrift. A chance meeting with Brian (Quinn), an old school friend, gives her the push she needs to get a job and support her family on her own. Roberta winds up teaching the violin in East Harlem, in a world obviously different from anything she has ever known. Her program becomes a success, but years later is faced with the axe; her program has its funding removed by the school board. This gives the film its final act, as Roberta gets the parents and teachers together to help fight the closing of her program. A benefit concert, featuring cameos by some of the world's greatest violinists, sends the film off on its weepy way.

    The implausibility factor is high as Roberta begins to teach. When Michelle Pfeiffer taught in Dangerous Minds, at least it took her several days to get into the heads of her students. Roberta, who has never taught anything but private lessons walks into class on her first day and wins her students over in a matter of minutes. Even before that, Roberta gets turned down for the job for good reasons, but by returning the next day and thrusting her violin-clutching children into Principal Janet Williams' face, she gets the decision instantly overturned. The list goes on. The racial aspect of having a white woman teach in a non-white neighbourhood is candy-coated and kept in the background. One student's mother pulls her child from class because she doesn't want her child learning "dead white men's music". Naturally, one speech from Roberta in a later scene magically changes the mother's mind. Roberta manages to fix every problem that comes her way and this weakens the film immensely. I'm sure that while the real Roberta Guaspari probably appreciates the added attention this film will give her and her program, she doubtless will be a bit miffed at the way her character is a caricature of most well-meaning teacher roles in recent memory. The real Roberta Guaspari was better served by the documentary Small Wonders, from which Music of the Heart stems.

    Meryl Streep's acting talent is well-known and needn't take up too much time here. Suffice to say, she is wonderful as Roberta, elevating the film to a level it doesn't deserve to reach. The same goes for Angela Bassett as Principal Williams and Aidan Quinn as Brian. Both have an easy time with their material, making their characters fun, engaging and three-dimensional. Other recognizable faces like Kieran Culkin as Roberta's teenaged son Lexi, Jane Leeves (Frasier) as a photographer who becomes a friend to Roberta, and Gloria Estefan as a fellow teacher have little of importance to do and wind up just taking up screen time.

    With Music of the Heart, Wes Craven expands his horizons in the same way director Sam Raimi did with For Love of the Game. It is interesting that both horrormeisters have made formulaic weepers soon after leaving their genre behind. I hope that with their next pictures, the two will swing away from clichés, for a great filmmaker can work well in more than one genre. Music of the Heart is a film for music lovers, and anyone wanting a good cry. Just beware: the film will probably give you a deja-vu feeling, since there is nothing original about the story.

Copyright - Tim Chandler

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