Música del corazón

Wes Craven (yes, THAT Wes Craven) directed this inspirational biopic about Roberta Guaspari (Meryl Streep), who started a music program in an impoverished inner city middle school that eventually went on to win national attention and acclaim.

This film treads awfully close to made-for-T.V. territory, but Streep is such a good actress that she keeps a tight grip on the runaway sentimentality that's always present in the screenplay. But in any case, who cares? This IS a feel good story, and it's a good enough movie that you can simply give in to letting it make you feel good without also making you feel guilty by being suckered.

Grade: B+

Music Of The Heart was a pleasant and interesting throwback to old Hollywood when they had no fear in making films about classical music and those who play it. Meryl Streep received one of her innumerable Best Actress Oscar nominations for playing Roberta Guaspari who creates and heads a program for inner city youth.

It's not that Streep has the most impressive of resumes when she applies for the job with Principal Angela Bassett. But music is not a big priority in school funding. But she happens to have purchased 50 violins from abroad for another of her projects. That kind of donation no principal can pass up so Streep gets the job.

The film divides neatly in half showing first Streep's early days in creating her violin class and then secondly trying to keep it alive during one of those perennial financial crisis that public education always seems to be having. In the tradition of Judy Garland and Mickey Rooney, what do we do but put on a show.

The film this really reminds of is a Samuel Goldwyn Production from the late Thirties titled They Shall Have Music. Gene Reynolds plays an inner city kid who also learns the violin and gets to appear with none other than Jascha Heifetz in a show.

Music Of The Heart sees your Heifetz with an Isaac Stern and raises with among others Itzhak Perlman and a number of classical artists who make guest appearances and support Streep and her program. The result, as this is a throwback film to old Hollywood need I tell you?

Streep has her personal problems as well, she was a Navy wife who has split from her husband and has two sons, both of whom she has raised to appreciate classical music. She gives all to her kids and her program and loses a few men who'd like to get something going with her, among them Aidan Quinn. She also moves into the East Harlem area where she teaches and truly enters the fabric of her pupil's lives.

She gets good support from a nicely chosen ensemble cast, but this film is truly the personal property of Meryl Streep and is joyously recommended to one and all who like classical music.

I must confess that I approached `Music of the Heart' with a great deal of fear and trepidation. I really had no desire to subject myself to what I envisioned to be a 124-minute barrage of inspirational life messages and feel-good sentimentality. What a pleasant surprise then to discover this to be a genuinely moving and heartwarming true-life tale of an extraordinary teacher, Roberta Gaspari, and her equally extraordinary students.

In plot, `Music of the Heart' doesn't deviate much from the standard formula common to such films. We have, first, the neophyte white middle class schoolteacher, plunged into the heart of a problem-ridden inner city Harlem school, filled with burnt-out teachers who have learned to expect little (and thereby garner little) from the youngsters placed in their charge and children themselves whose troubled home lives provide little in the way of a nurturing environment for academic achievement. We encounter the predictable first-day stumbles of this headstrong, idealistic newcomer as the students challenge her authority and the relevance of her violin class in no uncertain terms; we see how, through discipline and the sheer force of her own determination, she eventually connects them to the music they are learning to play, building their self-confidence and slowly winning the respect of their often skeptical, and, occasionally, downright hostile parents in the process. Then comes the great challenge, as the school board, after ten successful years in which the program has earned a sizable reputation and even been featured in magazine articles, pulls the plug on the funding. Thanks to the sheer determination of Gaspari, the parents whose children's lives have been forever altered, a magazine writer and the voluntary participation of a number of the world's premiere violinists (a large number of whom appear as themselves in the film), the group stages an amazing fundraising concert at Carnegie Hall, the proceeds from which save the program and help ensure its survival for the next several years.

One of the chief reasons that `Music of the Heart' does not dissolve (as it so easily might have) into a puddle of goopy tears lies in the matter-of-fact interpretation of the main character that both writer, Pamela Gray, and actress, Meryl Streep, bring to bear on the role. At no time is Roberta ever portrayed as a saintly figure. In fact, she is a woman filled with all sorts of insecurities and vulnerabilities, exacerbated by the devastating sense of bewilderment and loss caused by the unexpected termination of her marriage and her seeming need to be dependent on a man for comfort, support and a sense of purpose. She is often overbearing, pushy and pigheaded and not just in the classroom where it counts, but also in her personal life where it often alienates her from the ones she loves most. Yet, somehow out of this mass of self-doubts and personal missteps, she finds the inner strength and emotional wherewithal to work miracles. Streep throws herself so completely into the role that we cannot take our eyes off her for a single one of the film's 120 enthralling minutes (and I doubt that she is ever off screen for more than a few seconds in the entire film). It is a truly glowing performance.

Equally impressive, director Wes Craven is to be highly commended for drawing such an impressive array of credible, down-to-earth performances from a large cast of outstanding preteen actors. Thanks to them and an air of naturalism in the dialogue, the scenes between the youngsters and their teacher always ring true and believable.

I defy anyone - even the most tone deaf, musically disinterested member of the audience - not to be deeply touched by the final scenes of this film. Craven, from all his years doing those slasher films I suppose, really knows how to generate a sense of suspense as we follow the pre-show behind-the-scenes preparations of the nail-biting participants. The recreated concert itself, with a number of the real life participants brought back to play for the occasion, is utterly engrossing and leaves the audience both rheumy-eyed and covered with goose bumps. Well, maybe "Music of the Heart" is, after all, filled with the `inspirational life messages' and `feel-good sentimentality' I so dreaded at the outset of the film. That being the case, I guess that isn't such a bad thing after all!

Meryl Streep was made for the part of Roberta Guaspari, a woman who is convinced she can teach ghetto chidren to play the violin, one of the most difficult of all instruments to learn. Against all odds, she perseveres to convince the parents of the valuable lessons that can be learned through music. If you liked Mr. Holland's Opus, chances are that you will love Music of the Heart. Meryl Streep makes this movie work although she gets some acting help from Aidan Quinn, Angela Bassett and Cloris Leachman. Even though it is a little overly dramatic at times, it still touches you with its message and its spirit.

Roberta Guaspari (Meryl Streep) and her two kids move back home with her mom Assunta (Cloris Leachman) after her husband run off with her friend. She never made it as a concert violinist and teach sparingly as she is pulled around the world by her navy husband. An old friend Brian Turner (Aidan Quinn) directs her to Principal Janet Williams (Angela Bassett) who reluctantly hires her as a substitute music teacher in the East Harlem inner city school. All the teachers hate her except Isabel Vasquez (Gloria Estefan).

It's a pretty traditional biopic by director Wes Craven who usually does horror. It's not a particularly original true story but it's an effective one. The most impressive thing in this is Meryl Streep. She holds the movie together. There are all the classic hurdles like the intransigent teachers, poverty, angry parents, violent neighborhood, and tough luck kids. Through it all, Streep works her butt off pulling the right heartstrings.