was an "actress" in a movie, and that seldom happens with me.The most enjoyable scenes were those showing young children make music. And the Carnegie Hall performance, with all those real-world virtuoso violinists, is one of the most moving scenes imaginable, when you consider what had transpired leading up to it.This movie is based on the real story of a real music teacher in Harlem. It is a wonderful story of how one person through love and persistence can affect so many in such a positive way. This movie, unlike most, will stay with me for a long, long time.

treat and a good time, so don't miss this one.

man music", but Roberta uses the late Arthur Ashe, who was black and a great tennis player as a great example. In another scene, the mother tells Roberta that she was right.Ten years later, Roberta has taught over a thousand children how to play the violin and some of her former students have either gone onto college or become violinists. A problem surfaces, the superintendent and board of education have made budget cuts. Roberta is told by Janet Williams Angela Bassett , the princpal that the music program has been cut.So Roberta vows to keep the program alive and gets the idea of having a benefit concert. She gets help from some of her friends and some parents to help promote the concert and the place where it'll be held. Bad news, the first place where the concert is going to be held in has a flood. The only other place that is mentioned is Carnegie Hall in Philadelphia.The concert scene is one of the best scenes in the movie. Some of Roberta's first students come back to join some of current her pupils. Also, some of the best-known violinists in the world have come as well, Issac Stern, Mark O'Connor, Arnold Steinhardt, and Itzhak Perlman are among them. Watching O'Connor play was fun to see. I admit that is the concert is memorable and great to watch as the one put up in "The Blues Brothers".The emotional energy in this film never lets down at one moment. Bassett, Quinn, and Jay O. Sanders are good in their supporting roles. The movie is great and it stays with the story. Wes Craven deserved an Oscar nomination for Best Director and Streep is great.

unlike the crappy horror movies that you go to the ticket booths for your money back afterwards. Bravo!

of Angela Bassett and Meryl Streep, this movie should be seen everywhere and sensible people should cry like I did it when I saw it the first time. I wasn't so sensible yesterday night. You can criticize that this is a very predictable movie with a happy end. But this doesn't mean the movie is bad. Because every blockbuster film has a happy end. So I rate this movie a 9 out of 10. Andrés.

number of students. The last part of the film is devoted to her fight to continue the program after the board of education killed its funding. It culminates in a triumphant benefit concert supported by some of the greatest violinists in the world to raise private funds to save the program.This film celebrates the dogged determination and courage of one woman who proved that a single individual can make a difference. Her life was not a pretty picture. Her husband left her for one of her friends, turning her into an emotional basket case. Music was her only solace and teaching was her gift. Unfortunately, her lack of experience in the education system made her unqualified to get a position. So on the recommendation of a friend she convinces an East Harlem principal to give her a chance as a substitute violin teacher. She even supplies the violins.The story from there is an example of life often being more remarkable than fiction. The results she achieved with these children were astounding. My only criticism of the story was that it contained a little too much treatment of her personal life. Almost her entire relationship with Brian Aiden Quinn could have been eliminated without hurting the story. I know that director Wes Craven was trying to give us some character development on how tough her life was and how difficult a person she was, but it was superfluous and the digression only bogged the story down. The real story here was about her and the kids. He should have stuck to that. Otherwise, Craven did a fabulous job of directing, delivering an emotional story with great power and effect. I was quite impressed, especially given the fact that prior to this film, he was almost exclusively a one genre director Horror. Think ‘Scream' . The acting by Meryl Streep was nothing short of brilliant. I have read criticism of Streep's performance as too harsh, it seeming as if she didn't really LIKE the children. In actuality her performance was dead solid perfect. I was lucky enough to rent the Collector's Series DVD of this film which included a separate disk of the original documentary about the real Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras and her students, including the actual concert at Carnegie Hall. If you watch that documentary you will be in awe of how well Streep utterly nails her character. We get to see the real Roberta teaching her students and she is like a drill sergeant barking orders, throwing kids out of practice for not having their violins, reproaching them angrily about plucking their strings while she is speaking, and generally tolerating no nonsense. She is impatient with them and completely intolerant of anything but their best.The children who made comments about the real Roberta said things like, ‘I wouldn't have the discipline I have if it weren't for Roberta. That discipline not only helps me with the violin, but with everything else.' Another child said, ‘I have to pay attention to what I'm doing or Roberta will get mean. But if I do good, she is pleased and that make me feel good.' Yet another, ‘I want to work really hard so Roberta will be proud of me.' Clearly, these are not the comments of children who were being negatively affected by Roberta's no nonsense style.Streep said in the featurette included in the DVD that it is very difficult playing a real person because there is no leeway for artistic interpretation. Translation: If she was to play Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras, she had to become Roberta. This she accomplished with stunning accuracy. Streep captures not only Roberta's irascible demeanor, but the essence of her drive and passion for drawing the students very best. Roberta is a complex and difficult character to play and Streep throws herself into the role, delivering a tour de force performance that very few actors have the range and depth to accomplish.This film is a must see for anyone who loves the arts and anyone who can appreciate a great actress giving a career performance. I rated it a 9/10, subtracting a point for Craven's unnecessary digression into Roberta's private life. That is, however, hardly a reason to miss this bravura performance and an inspiring story.

growing up, music lessons were everything to me. You could escape into a whole other world when you practised, and the instrument became a friend when none other might be. This film captured that more than any other I've seen. For a character who looks and sounds like Meryl Streep, it is amazing how much Meryl Streep vanishes into Roberta. She captures with full conviction the passion she has for her music, whilst also layering her character with personality quirks that inform us why her marriage has broken down. Streep layers that with bursts of anger, sadness and even humour that never feel out of place because they feel like Roberta's real emotions. She could have walked into my high school's music department and wouldn't have felt even a little bit out of place. This is probably my favourite ever Meryl Streep performance. From an unknown supporting cast, Angela Basset is stunningly effective as Janet, a Harlem principal holding a school together with her bare hands.The film essentially splits into two halves, with a ten year break in between. The first is Roberta's struggle to deal with the breakdown of her marriage and her desire to make the program work not to help the kids, but to make ends meet. But as the first act goes on, interactions with the kids show her how much the program means to them - even the troublemakers who give her flack but show up week after week in spite of everything. In the second half, ten years later than the first, Roberta's program is in jeopardy and she must fight to maintain it, because she has seen now how much good it can do. The relationship between Roberta and the kids - especially Jade Yorker's DeSean and Victoria Gomez's Lucy - is beautiful and believable, even as she occasionally hits stumbling blocks associated with kids in Harlem - incidental murders, domestic violence and hostility from black parents. Screenwriter Pamela Gray does a terrific job avoiding the trappings of White Saviour but focusing more on how music helps children, regardless of who their teacher is. Sometimes I felt that there were a few unnecessary subplots, such as Roberta's love life - both of her love interests fizzle out without much impact on the story. Other times, serious moments are swept over quickly, like when a father and daughter turn up to the concert announcing "they took the car and violin", which is quickly ignored. But I watched this film with a smile on my face the whole way through - just as the proud parents beamed at their underprivileged children performing beautiful music on stage. I would never have though to find such a feel-good movie in the filmography of a great horror director, but it just goes to show that just like music in the hearts of Harlem, you should never judge a book by its cover.

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.

and personal life including a long term affair are chronicled over a decade, culminating in the distressing news that the school board has canceled funding for her music program. However, she comes up the brilliant idea to hold a benefit concert in Carnegie Hall to elicit support.Roberta's classroom struggles are well depicted as, for starters, these kids are perceived as underachievers by their teachers, resulting in low expectations. The violin is a difficult instrument and it requires some doing to convince these underprivileged kids that, not only is it relevant to their lives, but yes, of course they can learn it and can meet her standards. Also, these parents, not exactly classical buffs, are skeptical and sometimes downright hostile. Winning their support takes time. Finally, just when the other hurdles are conquered, the Board of Education challenge...Meryl Streep very skillfully portrays all Roberta's professional trials as well as her personal life story, which is interspersed between the classroom scenes. She has her two boys to raise and also her relationship with her live in lover, Brian, who connects well with her kids.Cameo appearances by famous violinists, including Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman, add to the drama.It's a wonderful, inspirational story...and true. These music teacher tales always touch me since my own son played in his school band for seven years, and I saw personally the difference made by the music program in his and the other students' lives. Films such as Mr. Holland's Opus and this one are a tribute to these dedicated music teachers, and serve to highlight their generally unheralded efforts.