Susan Granger’s review of “MUSIC OF THE HEART” (Miramax Films)
Can Wes Craven, creator of slasher/horror movies from Nightmare on Elm Street to Scream, score in another genre? Yes! Working with an intelligent screenplay by Pamela Gray (A Walk on the Moon), Craven goes for a different kind of gut emotion in this timely, true story violin instructor Roberta Guaspari, the mother of two young boys, who was abandoned when her Naval officer husband ran off with another woman. Forced into asserting her independence to survive, she cleverly badgers an East Harlem principal into hiring her as a substitute music teacher, despite the protests of the tenured faculty and the wariness of the inner-city parents. Fervently believing in discipline, dignity, and commitment, Roberta Guaspari struggles to teach classical violin to disorderly, often resistant students, building self-esteem and changing their lives in remarkable ways. And her crusade leads all the way to Carnegie Hall, where violinists Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, Arnold Steinhardt and Mark O’Connor join in Fiddlefest, along with the children of Guaspari’s actual East Harlem violin program. If the story sounds familiar, it was the basis of a 1995 Oscar-nominated documentary, Small Wonders. Meryl Streep delivers a polished, virtuoso performance that could earn her another well-deserved Oscar nomination, while Angela Bassett, Gloria Estefan, and Aidan Quinn deliver strong support. Estefan performs the title song with teen sensation ‘N Sync, and the sound track talent includes Jennifer Lopez, C Note, Macy Gray, and Julio Iglesias Jr.. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, Music of the Heart is an exhilarating, uplifting 8. Like Mr. Holland’s Opus, it’s sentimental and emotionally manipulative but there’s an audience for this kind of heart-warming film that everyone in the family can enjoy.
