There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.

Omg wow is all I can say, Meryll Streep was excellent at playing the violin and took up a role as a musical teacher. I say, she probably was flat out every time she came to rehearsal's to get the notes and tunes right. I have seen her in Mamma Mia but I swear, this probably made her film career go to to the roof! She just can do anything!I loved how we also get to see the little kids playing as well, its just so adorable and rewarding to watch them playing the violin probably! I honestly wouldn't even pick up the violin like these kids could, I would probably miss a lot of notes, never mind teaching me haha!If the internet was working, I would miss watching this movie on television. This probably is the most underrated Oscar Nominated film thats out there! I really enjoyed it, I felt like I was in a musical world that I would never have! Good film!

In honour of the passing of Wes Craven, I wanted to seek out a film of his. Of course, as the go-to-guy for horror movies, my least favourite genre, I had to scan through his filmography to find the bizarrely out-of-character film Music of the Heart. As the only non-horror film on the list, it won the honour fairly easily.It surprises me to no end that a horror film maestro could create what is probably one of the best feel-good movies I have ever seen. I can pick a passion project when I see it, and I am positive that Craven was passionate about this story and to telling it right. When I was 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.

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.

The story of a schoolteacher (Meryl Streep)'s struggle to teach violin to inner-city Harlem kids.Now reportedly, Wes Craven got this directing job by saying he would not do "Scream 3" without doing this first. What does this say about Craven? Besides horror, thriller and adult films, he has a passion for something more. Of course, you know, he does hold a masters degree in English and philosophy.Angela Bassett is back in a big way. Those who had only seen Bassett in Craven's "Vampire in Brooklyn" may not expect much from her, but here she is among her strongest. With Streep getting an Oscar nomination, maybe Bassett deserved one, too.Roger Ebert gave the film three stars out of four and wrote that "Meryl Streep is known for her mastery of accents; she may be the most versatile speaker in the movies. Here you might think she has no accent, unless you've heard her real speaking voice; then you realize that Guaspari's speaking style is no less a particular achievement than Streep's other accents. This is not Streep's voice, but someone else's - with a certain flat quality, as if later education and refinement came after a somewhat unsophisticated childhood." The other music teacher seems a bit one-noted, not believing in the kids. Whether this is supposed to be racism, a commentary on the inner city, or just a dislike of children is unclear. How easily Demetras is able to get their attention seems a bit strange, although she does tend to lose them as time goes on.Where does the reality meet the fiction, or vice versa?