Music of the Heart (1999)

62% of critics liked it
(85 reviews)
68% of users liked it
(11,601 ratings)

After devoting his career to such horror films as Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Last House on the Left, director Wes Craven makes a dramatic change of pace with this inspiring drama about a teacher who helps change the lives of her students. Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras (Meryl Streep) teaches… More After devoting his career to such horror films as Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and Last House on the Left, director Wes Craven makes a dramatic change of pace with this inspiring drama about a teacher who helps change the lives of her students. Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras (Meryl Streep) teaches at an elementary school in Harlem, where discipline is a higher priority than the lively arts. But Roberta believes that studying music will give the children a sense of purpose invaluable in later life. Despite indifference from the school administration and budget cuts that force her to seek outside funding (and even threaten her job), Roberta struggles to teach the violin to her students, instilling a love of classical music in kids who might otherwise never have heard Bach or Mozart, and leading to a student recital at Carnegie Hall. Angela Bassett, Cloris Leachman, and Aidan Quinn highlight the supporting cast, and virtuoso violinists Isaac Stern, Itzhak Perlman, and Mark O'Connor appear as themselves. The Music of the Heart is based on a true story; the real Roberta Guaspari-Tzavaras and her students can be seen in the documentary Small Wonders. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Rating, Runtime: PG, 2 hr. 4 min.
Directed By: Wes Craven
Written By: Pamela Gray
Genres: Drama, Kids & Family

In Theaters: Oct 29, 1999 Wide
On DVD: Jan 15, 2002
Studio: Miramax

Critic Reviews

Kevin Maynard, Mr. Showbiz
Music is a calculated but effective film.
Joe Baltake, Sacramento Bee
Moves with more dexterity than most dedicated-teacher flicks.
Peter Rainer, New York Magazine
The tone of inspirational uplift is familiar from movies like Stand and Deliver and Mr. Holland's Opus -- which is to say, it's familiarly awful.
Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune
One of the year's most heartfelt movies.
Jeff Millar, Houston Chronicle
For its first three laps, this inspirational - teacher movie moves too slowly, even with the head start I give inspirational - teacher movies.
Tom Keogh, Film.com
It may be premature to think Craven just doesn't spark outside the horror genre, but there's nothing here to suggest the opposite.
Derek Adams, Time Out
Meryl dominates the proceedings. She simply disappears into the role, and the movie, for all its educational impulses, becomes about watching her do it.
Judith Egerton, Courier-Journal (Louisville, KY)
Doesn't revolve around a self-centered main character or possess the schmaltz of Mr. Holland's Opus.
John R. McEwen, Film Quips Online
Novice writer Pamela Gray has pumped this already-amazing story full of melodramatic embellishment and, in so doing, all but ruined its impact.
Kay Dickinson, Sight and Sound
The standard plotline of a teacher bearing the torch of liberal enlightenment to an educationally bereft group comes off rather dubiously here.
Shlomo Schwartzberg, Boxoffice Magazine
The inspiring true story of teacher Roberta Guaspari is given a conventional treatment in this decidedly uninspiring drama.
Peter Keough, Boston Phoenix
Audience-pleasing Music certainly is, but whether it comes from the heart or directly from the tearducts is another question.
Chuck Rudolph, Matinee Magazine
You might be able to tell what direction the movie's headed in, but you'll never outguess Streep.
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat, Spirituality and Practice
A woman at the end of her rope after she is deserted by her husband finds a path of the heart that enables her to share her gift with the world.
Scott Renshaw, Scott Renshaw's Screening Room
The disappointment in Music of the Heart comes from a strangely fragmented narrative that never quite commits to a central story.

Read all 15 critic reviews

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Featured Audience Ratings

jay n

Inspiring true story with good acting and a compelling narrative. A nice change of pace from Wes Craven.
Jennifer X

it wasn't bad, despite the fact how much i despise the cliched inner city kids can do sports/be intelligent/sing/spell/play an instrument despite GREAT ODDS and there's always a random kid dying or doing drugs or something. and meryl streep is great at playing angry women.
Leigh R

Very well done. The music is beautiful.
Jedd Y

It was hard for me to sit through this film, because it was a big parade of wasted opportunities. The filmmakers had a good true story for their source material, good casting with Meryl Streep and most of the other actors, and best of all good music. But it was all lost on a terrible… More
It was hard for me to sit through this film, because it was a big parade of wasted opportunities. The filmmakers had a good true story for their source material, good casting with Meryl Streep and most of the other actors, and best of all good music. But it was all lost on a terrible screenplay and clumsy direction from Wes Craven - who is evidently more comfortable with horror and suspense thriller movies. By the time the late Isaac Stern and other very famous real-life violinists walk onto the Carnegie Hall stage, I felt numbed and unaffected. This is terrible because, as a former violin student, that could have been the big fireworks ending. It wasn't.
Andrew F

It is a really good movie. The Fiddlefest is really cool. Meryl Streep is great in it.
Brett W

Music of the Heart is the inspiring tale of a music teacher who inspires her students to stop smoking drugs and prostituting and start playing music... and then murders them.
Sunil J

The music teacher that changes lives has been done before but this was nice.
Leo L

Great movie!