Music of the Heart

Music of the Heart is based on the true-life experiences of an inner city music teacher. Meryl Streep plays Roberta Guaspari, a single mother with two children who overcomes all obstacles to lead a performance of ghetto kids at Carnegie Hall, joined in concert by the likes of Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. The concert really did take place, the subject of a 1996 documentary film called Small Wonders.

The movie opens with Roberta getting the word that her unseen Navy officer husband has left for another woman. Roberta’s mother (Cloris Leachman) takes them all in, but pushes her moping daughter to find work. While wrapping presents at a department store, Roberta has a chance encounter with old flame Brian Turner (Aidan Quinn). He arranges an interview for Roberta with East Harlem elementary school principal Janet Williams (Angela Bassett).

Roberta offers to teach violin in a special program. The principal rejects the idea. The ever-determined Roberta shows up the next day with her two young sons, violins in hand, and wins the principal over.

Though she is never considered to be a regular faculty member, Roberta ends up teaching over 1400 kids how to play the instrument during a ten year period. That’s an amazing statistic, considering all of the problems she encounters with fellow teachers, parents, as well as from her own students. One teacher (Gloria Estefan) becomes her closest friend.

Then there’s the private Roberta, who has a tough time raising two fatherless sons. Her social life is zero, but this is one tough cookie who serves as an inspiration for all. The two sons (Kieran Culkin and Charlie Hofheimer) defy the odds and become accomplished musicians themselves, turning out to be pretty decent kids in the process.

When Roberta’s music program gets cut from the school board budget, she rallies the troops in Andy Hardy-fashion and arranges for the fund-raising concert at Carnegie Hall. As much as I like Music of the Heart, the downside of the film is its top-heavy sweetness that came close to putting me into a diabetic coma. But considering that I had just seen House on Haunted Hill, the extra schmaltz leveled me back into equilibrium.