Music of the Heart | Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett

Music of the Heart | Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett | Music of the Heart

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Music of the Heart

	Music of the Heart Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett Miramax/ Walt Disney Home Video, 2000 average customer review:based on 87 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Warm and Inspirational

This heartwarming film taken from actual events is brought to life by the marvelous Meryl Streep. It is sentimental to be sure, but also an inspiration and a reminder not to give up on kids. Once exposed to the arts and finding a sense of accomplishment in their success, children will carry this over into other areas of life as well. It is a message that is at once good, and true. It is brought nicely to the forefront in this very underrated Wes Craven film that boasts a terrific cast and an uplifting story of hope.

Meryl Streep is Roberta Guaspari, given a chance to teach violin to some kids in East Harlem, New York, by principal Janet Williams (Angela Bassett). Roberta is a single mother with two boys of her own. She initially has to provide the instruments for the children herself. Though some of the parents can't see how playing the violin will be of any use to their children, she pushes forward with a little encouragement from teachers like Isabel Vasquez (Gloria Estefan) and the response of her students.

She is demanding of her pupils, which rubs both them and their parents the wrong way at first. But as time goes on and she adjusts to them and they begin to know her, the program takes on a life of its own, giving the kids a sense of accomplishment and the ability to dream of something better in their lives. As the years pass the program becomes well known and is a shining point to a school system that is not always equipped to deal with the number of children as compared to the number of good teachers.

Roberta's boyfriend Brian (Aidan Quinn) can not see Roberta's true worth and she finally lets the relationship drop and concentrates on her kids. Her own boys have difficulty with their father's leaving, followed by Brian, but finally grow up enough to want happiness for their mother; they even try to set her up with someone. This is not a one-note movie or a one-note performance as some would have you believe, but a fine and well rounded film full of love and hope.

When school funding threatens to close the program, Roberta is aided by many famous musicians to raise the money needed with a performance at Carnegie Hall, playing with Isaac Stern and others. Streep has a luminous and heartrending turn in this sincere film. Cloris Leachman has a nice role also as Claire's not so perfect mother.

This film shows what can be accomplished if we make the effort to teach children the arts. It is just as important as academics, as this warm and caring film based on the real life of Roberta Guaspari shows. It is a movie worth owning and watching with your own kids.

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Music of the Heart

I give it 5 stars for acting, for the screenplay, for the music (which was cool), basicaly for everything. I bought it not just because it had very talented actors/actresses in it but also because of the message that it gave. Music education is very important. Also because it was one of the first movies that Gloria Estefan acted in it.

Parts Of This Movie Will Make Your Sing

MUSIC OF THE HEART, the story of violin teacher Roberta Guaspari and her fight to save a music program in East Harlem's school system, is based loosely on the 1996 documentary SMALL WONDERS. Ms. Guaspari believed, as did her principal Janet Williams, that studying music and art, in this instance the violin, teaches children discipline and provides them with a sense of self-worth and that the arts should not be treated as frills but rather an integral part of a child's edcuation.

Meryl Streep, nominated for an Oscar for her portrayal of Ms. Guaspari, is as always magnificent. She favors the instructor a little; but more importantly, she takes on her walk and speech patterns so as to actually become her. While Cloris Leachman, Angela Bassett and Aidan Quinn give respectable performances, the movie belongs to Ms. Streep.

The film adds new material not seen in the documentary; some of it works better than others. The relationship between Quinn and Streep-- she and her two young sons have been deserted by her husband-- could have been left out entirely without much having been lost. On the other hand, the death of a student from a drive-by shooting and the child who has to leave Streep's class and move away because her father is abusing her mother, while fictional-- at least they are not in the documentary-- add touches of necessary realism and keep the movie from becoming one-sided.

The highlight of both this movie and the documentary [included in the DVD version and is not to be missed] is the concert at Carnegie Hall by the students, along with some of the great violinists of the world, to raise money to keep the violin classes continuing. Apparently the concert was the brainchild of Arnold Steinhardt of the Guarneri String quartet and his wife who came to Guaspari's aid in her fight to save the violin program.

Ms Guaspari's vision, refreshing and heart-warming, is simple through profound: teachers make a difference, discipline is essential to learning, music is an integral part of education, all children can learn to play the violin, one should play from the heart. We could use more movies like this one, particularly in times like these when movie houses show documentaries entitled ENRON and THE FOG OF WAR while the casualties from the War in Iraq daily continue to rise and no weapons of mass destruction are found.

Parts of this movie will make you sing.

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MARVELOUS MUSIC

Director Wes Craven told the studio he would direct SCREAM 3 only if he could direct MUSIC OF THE HEART. There's no Freddy Kruegers or screaming teens this time; and if Craven's direction is standard and to the point, it fits the mood of this uplifting salute to a caring and determined teacher. As Roberta, Meryl Streep garnered one of her fourteen Oscar nominations, and as always, Streep is brilliant. Instead of placing a halo around her head, Streep shows us a woman who is not always likeable. She's hard on her pupils, but ironically, that's what they come to love and admire in her. She's not had a great personal life and yes, sometimes she's a little rough on her two boys. Roberta's quick-tempered, impulsive, but dedicated and compassionate. It's to Streep's credit that her performance transcends the obvious; and to show her dedication to her craft, she learned to play the violin to boot. And it was refreshing to see children so enraptured and gain considerable self-esteem as they learned their craft; the final concert in Carnegie Hall is appropriately schmaltzy but wonderful in its heartfelt conviction. Perhaps focusing on Roberta's desire for commitment from lover Aidan Quinn was distracting, but it showed us the fragile side of her character as well. The supporting cast is very good, too..Angela Bassett's regal stance as the school's principal; Jay O. Sanders strength and admiration, and the children are very good too. Gloria Estefan is given very little to do, but she does a nice job with NSYNC on the Oscar-nominated title song.
What makes MUSIC OF THE HEART such a good film is its heart. Seeing Streep take these underprivileged kids and make them proud of their achievements is uplifting, and showing how the parents likewise supported their children (even those who initially found it hard to do) gives this reviewer hope and faith that there is hope for children in this increasingly demanding world. It proves that sports heroes aren't the only ones out there.

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Music Of The Heart

I just happened to be surfing the channels when I came upon this film. I stopped and watched it to see who was starring in it. When Meryl Streep appeared on the screen, I knew I had to stop and take notice. Well, I was blown away by the performances and the story. This is a perfect film to watch with your child, who is reluctantly taking musical instrument lessons. The dedication of this woman to teach music to children as well as teach them how to apply themselves to whatever their dreams might be, was overwhelming! I highly recommend this as a film to reach and teach the unreachable.

Beatrice

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