Matters of the Heart

Excellent job of Jane Seymour as Hadley Norman. IMO it's believable. Jane at her best! And a great Christopher Gartin whom I haven't heard of before I saw the movie. Wonderful score and beautiful pictures.If you are a fan of Jane Seymour (I am!) and haven't seen this movie yet, it will move you to tears.

The answer is "No" the actors are not playing the piano. The most telling clue is the hands are located in the wrong registers relative to the music when you see them playing. The close ups show the hands of at least two others who knows how to play the pieces, but the effort expended does not match the soundtrack. If you want to see a better match of actor, stand-in player, and musical dubbing, go see The Seventh Veil, if you can find it on a movie channel.

Otherwise, this is a fairly standard TV movie of a nearly burned out artist who finds a protégé and some emotional fulfillment in a talented young man, Steven.

I guess this was a weeper of the week back in the heyday of 1970's TV movies. Lots of chances to exercise and practice acting, but not enough time to fully develop the story or characters.

In Cromwell, the sensitive teenager Steven Harper (Chris Gartin) dreams on becoming a pianist. However, his rude father Glenn Harper (James Stacy), who is a disabled veteran from Vietnam, questions his masculinity since he wanted his son to work in his hardware store with his uncle Frank Harper (Geoffrey Lewis). When Steven finds that the famous pianist and composer Hadley Norman (Jane Seymour) is living recluse in Cromwell, he approaches to her. A couple of days later, Hadley finds that Steven is a talented pianist. She becomes his teacher and plans his participation in a contest in Boston. Despite their difference of age, they fall in love with each other. Out of the blue, Hadley constantly goes to New York, and Steven believes she is meeting her former husband John Norman (Clifford David). One day, Hadley disappears and Steven sees John packing her stuff. Then he tells to Steven what happened to Hadley.

"Matters of the Heart" is one of the most beautiful romances ever made. The sensitive story of a woman and her protégé falling in love with each other is adorable. In the lead role is Jane Seymour, certainly one of the most beautiful actresses of the world; in the soundtrack, classical music. The result is an unforgettable film that unfortunately was only released on VHS in Brazil. My vote is nine.

Title (Brazil): "Tarde Demais para o Amor" ("Too Late for Love")

Not a *really* bad performance, but this formula movie didn't have any surprises. Jane Seymour does a great job as the recluse musician, but the story does not even nearly rise to her level. Christopher Gartin does have his moments making all the goofy mistakes that an 18-year-old really makes.

n.b. in the 1990's, there were no rich famous people driving MGA's.

the title is so attractive and expressive , the actor Christopher Gartin was so so expressive , wonderful and convinced me that he is a pianist and also in great love with Hadely in their romantic situations also when he knew that she is ill and going to die, the actress Jane was very expressive , she was serious and some situations needed her to be tough and cruel ..she expressed well ,also she was romantic in some situations , she is a wonderful actress indeed , I enjoyed the classical music in this movie I enjoyed Gartin when he was training , enjoyed his expressions , his dealing with the piano and his looking at the notes as if he is a musician he was clever enough , it is a wonderful romantic movie I adore it