Music of the Heart (1999)

Don't listen to the negative reviews

best movie i've ever seen.

Admirable film.

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

Music of the Heart (1999): Dir: Wes Craven / Cast: Meryl Streep, Aiden Quinn, Gloria Estifan, Angela Bassett, Cloris Leachman: Drama that regards the glorious things that can happen when unity plays centre factor. Meryl Streep plays a violin teacher who has just gone through a divorce and receives an offer to teach at an inner city school. She moves out of her mother's house and into a house owned by an old school friend. Recycled and predictable with too many developments that are either unnecessary or left unsolved. It is great to see a filmmaker branch out from his usual fare, but only when it works. Wes Craven lacks the slick appeal of his horror films but nonetheless it is a tremendous turn for him. His talent is much better highlighted in A Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. Streep is a strong presence but this role has been recycled so many times that all she can do is remind viewers that she is above this trash. Her romance with Aiden Quinn is poorly handled especially since he serves little other purpose to the story. Gloria Estifan has a great singing voice but a lousy part in this film, and Angela Bassett is also featured in another of the many flat roles. Theme hindered by useless formula elements. For a superior film check out Mr. Holland's Opus. It is broader and much more interesting but more importantly it carries better music to the heart. Score: 1 / 10

There is a lot of dramatic credibility attached to this film, which isn't warranted. Yes, Meryl Streep is the lead and she received an Oscar nomination for the role, but this film is less dramatic than much more soapy. This film falls into the sub-genre of "white woman saves inner city children" which also includes "Freedom Writers" and "Dangerous Minds," and overdone and quite manipulative genre that needs to be done away with. You will either find this true story enlightening and sweet hearted or overly dramatic, based on taste or being able to stomach racially motivated story lines. Though, in general, I find these kinds of films tedious and over the top, the last half hour did make me well up. Real life music teacher Roberta Guaspari is inspirational, and her story is at least treated with respect. It is also interesting to note this is the only film Wes Craven has directed that has nothing to do with horror or sci-fi, and for those unaware of his finesse, this is a great showcase of his talents. This is an entertaining film, if a little overdone in its execution.

First of all, Streep practiced the violin for 6 hours a day in preparation for this role. And of course, it shows. I've studied piano for 10 years and so much of the music and musical places featured in this film were so fun to watch. The final scene in Carnegie Hall was super, plus a couple of THE violinists. Wow.All in all, I just love this movie. All of the cast was good and the scope of the material covered was also fleshed out. You don't need to play the violin to appreciate it, but it does help if you SOMETHING about music and the drive to succeed in the field.Just watch it, rent it, and learn something about music and the drive the fuels people to succeed at it. And learn something about the notable violists that appear in the film. They are considered some of the best. And if you listen to their recordings, you can see why!

The movie "Music of the Heart" suffers what a lot of similar movies "based on fact" suffer: lack of a smooth flow due to trying to get all the factual information in. It should have remained a book. The boyfriend segment that went nowhere should have been left out altogether, as much as I love looking at Aiden Quinn and watching him act. And the flow was made further awkward because here and there, we are shown the main character as not being sympathetic at all, but having a perfectionistic, difficult personality. So who is the woman who the movie was based on? Certainly not a "warm and fuzzy" type, and yet she does things that help her under-privileged community and students. But it seems like her virtues stem out of a belief-system that "poor public school students should be taught to play the violin" and "anyone can learn the violin"-- not from a fully-formed, sympathetic, "from the heart" woman. ***POSSIBLE SPOILER**... The direction is amateurish with painful cuts from happy face to happy face from an applauding audience at the finale-- including that of the boyfriend that she had left 10 years before applauding wildly like their ending had gone well, and looking like he looked in the last scene we saw him in. Questions beg to be answered. How did all those poor kids get the money to buy the fancy duds for playing at Carnegie Hall? I believe that movies based on modern, real-life people are difficult to make; this one could have stood a LOT more effort in the making.