Film

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

Music of the Heart (1999)

Director: Wes Craven

Average user rating
No reviews

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Sometimes real life turns out just like a TV movie. The story of music teacher Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras is one such instance, where her dedication to the students on her East Harlem Violin Program produced such remarkable results that these slum kids ended up fiddling away on the stage of Carnegie Hall in a fund raising event. It's a rousing, inspirational tale all right, and a plum vehicle for Streep as the music tutor who simply would not take 'no' for an answer. But we sort of know that it's a rousing, inspirational tale before we go in, so the film has to be something rather special to make us experience that response anew. With the best will in the world, Craven's offering is merely decent, standout Streep aside. To be fair on Craven and his cast, it never gets too sickly, and it doesn't try and sell us any line about classical music ennobling the soul, choosing instead to give its young people something they can do which improves their self-esteem. Bassett (headmistress) and Estefan (fellow teacher) are clearly there to broaden the demographic, but Meryl dominates the proceedings. She simply disappears into the role, and the movie, for all its educational impulses, becomes about watching her do it.

Author: TJ 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

  • Print this page
  • Send to a friend

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: Wes Craven

Producer: Marianne Maddalena, Walter Scheuer, Allan Miller, Susan Kaplan

Cast: Meryl Streep, Aidan Quinn, Gloria Estefan, Angela Bassett, Jane Leeves, Cloris Leachman, Kieran Culkin, Charlie Hofheimer, Jay O Sanders full cast

Duration: 124 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.