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| Directed by Wes Craven; Starring Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett, Aidan Quinn, Cloris Leachman, Gloria Estefan, Jay O. Sanders, Josh Pais, Charlie Hofheimer, Kieran Culkin, Michael Angarano, Henry Dinhofer, and Jane Leeves |
Where is the world going. I think it is official, the entire world is going to end at the change of the millennium. There are things already happening that reach the greatest amount of absurdity. David Mamet (a.k.a. Mr. “Fuck You”) and the king of the surreal David Lynch made G rated films this year. Not to mention the fact that a first time film from a play director is better than a Kubrick film. Then there is one thing that irks me almost more than the others (“almost” because I can’t get over Mamet and Lynch going G) is that two men that are known for their expertise in horror films are making steps in completely different genres. Earlier this year, the creator of the Evil Dead trilogy, Sam Raimi, made a insipid romantic drama with For Love of the Game, proving that he should stick to his own genre. Now the man that introduced Scream, A Nightmare on Elm Street, and The Last House on the Left is making a warm hearted drama. At least when Raimi made a drama last year, it was dark and disturbing. The Wes Craven drama is pure sap (as well as pure Mr. Holland’s Opus, Blackboard Jungle, To Sir, with Love, Lean on Me, et al.), with little else, at least until its last half.
Music of the Heart is a dramatization of the true story of Roberta Guaspari, a dedicated East Harlem violin teacher who attempted to keep the music in the inner city schools. The film starts off with Roberta (Streep) in financial and emotional strife over her husband leaving her for a friend they had shared. Instead of living with her caring mother (Leachman), she and her two children (at this point in the film, Angarano and Dinhofer) head to East Harlem where Roberta has picked up a substitute teacher of violins thanks to a Brian (Quinn), an old friend. The first hour deals with Roberta teaching the first group of fifty children to play the instrument and dealing with an ill fated relationship with Brian. The second half is set ten years later with Roberta still in the school, while teaching the course in three other local schools. But when the music budget is cut, Roberta finds that her position is in danger and she and two friends (Bassett and Estefan) attempt to find a way to stop this from happening.
The first hour of the film is awful to sit through, some of the worst drama I’ve ever seen, but suddenly everything changes at the second half. When that “Ten Years Later” card comes up, the film also comes up from the hole it had fallen in. With surprising grace, Craven had made a beautiful concert film, making the characters more dimensional, and the actors more at home. I was ready to give the film a D+ or C- from the first half, but the second half changed everything.
Craven does little with the direction in the first half (I know my dividing of the film is a little annoying, but that is actually the only way to look at the film), but he seems to have brightened up in the second. The actors are hit and miss, with Streep and Bassett both giving worthy performances, while Estefan and Quinn are just staggering around.
This is the ultimate mixed review, hating the first half, adoring the second. Luckily for the film I tend to think the stronger second half is more important.
