Film

Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in New York, plus articles, trailers and more
 

Mr Holland's Opus (1995)

Director: Stephen Herek

Average user rating
1 review

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

It's Glenn Holland's first day at school: he's the reluctant new music teacher at John F Kennedy High. It's 1965, and Mr Holland (Dreyfuss) is anxious to get back to his real work, composition, but as time passes he rechannels his passion into the students, until one day he wakes up, 30 years later, and wonders what happened to his life. Although the avowed inspiration here is It's a Wonderful Life, this tear-jerker shares plenty of old school ties with such British counterparts as The Browning Version and Goodbye, Mr Chips. Screenwriter Patrick Sheane Duncan has created a dramatic arc that's also a learning curve: Holland starts off a stiff-shirt disciplinarian, but comes to realise that he gets better results when he mixes up the Ludwig Van with a little Ray Charles. The film soft-pedals the uglier realities of contemporary schools and Holland's last, most sentimental lesson is to appreciate his own worth. But sentimentality can have its heart in the right place and, in any case, this isn't the film's only message: Dreyfuss' exemplary performance shows how selfishly Holland neglects his own family in favour of his pupils, and it's clear how conservative politics impinge even on music classes. A middle-brow melodrama which functions as the thinking person's Forrest Gump. Music to my ears.

Author: TCh 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

User reviews of this film

  • JR said...
    Posted on Oct 12 2009 00:42 A very endearing story of a couple who became sidetracked early. She was going to be a famous Photographer and he was to write the Great American Symphony. Finding ( at the close of his career) that his 'fallback position' was as important as it had been was quite a revelation. For him. With no recognition, he touch lives, fed confidence, and helped launch a career in a similar medium that he aspired to himself.Begging the question of who might have been the inspiration in the lives of our current celebrities, it is a movie that also makes one think. Also to wonder what happened to my band director?
    Report as inappropriate

What do you think?
Post your review now

clear rating
Min 1 star. Zero stars will be treated as unrated.

*mandatory fields


Cast & crew

Director: Stephen Herek

Producer: Ted Field, Michael Nolin, Robert W Cort

Cast: Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Jay Thomas, Olympia Dukakis, WH Macy, Alicia Witt, Terrence Howard full cast

Duration: 143 mins


Features

Making a name for himself

Making a name for himself

Sin Nombre's Cary Joji Fukunaga learned his lessons well.

To the letter

Forty years later, Costa-Gavras's Z still brims with fury.

Mind over matter

David Cronenberg reflects on a most bizarre body: his own corpus of work.

Fool's gold

Can an Oscar win lead to a cursed career? Here are five stories of postaward professional meltdowns.

We are the championed

Terrorists and teens abound in this year's "Film Comment Selects."

A history of violence

Matteo Garrone's kaleidoscopic Gomorrah wallops you with Italy's crime crisis.

True romantic

James Gray exchanges urban amorality for amour in Two Lovers.

Playing in the dark

MoMA salutes pianist Stuart Oderman's 50 years as the one-man sound of silents.

Junk bonds

Cast and crew recall the making of the classic NYC drug drama The Panic in Needle Park.