This is supposed to be based on reality. If so, I feel so bad for the teacher and so great for the teacher.This was so perfectly acted by adults and children alike. I don't know if the kids were playing or the music was dubbed in but it is great stuff. When she stands in Carnegie Hall and hears the reverberation, it was so great. To stand on that great stage and even play one note.I had dripping eyes for longer than any other movie, ever. Smiling and crying at the same time. This one is an emotional tour-de-force.My S.O. went to sleep during it, as usual, and missed something special. How could this be rated less than 10??? And only 6.7??? Something is wrong here. This is a must see. All the way to the end. Special stuff well acted. Spellbinding all the way. A MUST SEE!!!

I feel robbed by the director, Wes Craven, that I was unable to give a rating of 8 to this movie, instead of a 7. This movie had everything; good acting, name-brand main actors and actresses, a compelling story, social pertinence and a theme of victory over adversity. All the things that I admire and enjoy in a film. The reasons I was only prepared to give what I deem a passing grade to Music of the Heart are these; 1.) What did Mrs. Guaspari do to motivate and engage these students? Bark out orders? 2.) Why, in the absence of Mrs. Guaspari's inspiration, did the students (individually or collectively) want to take up the violin? (We never really get to meet any of the students, nor find out what is important (or at least intriguing) to them. 3.) Why does Mrs. Guaspari not play something impressive for the students, to show what they can accomplish, and how wonderful the violin can sound? ( Initially, to wow the students, 20 seconds of Shostakovich or D'Vorak would have been sufficient, but the film should have been replete with pertinent and brilliant, even if abbreviated, violin music, played by Mrs. Guaspari). 4.) What inspired Mrs. Guaspari to take up the violin, and why does she play? What is her relationship to music?This last point is the most glaring omission in Music of the Heart.It was heart-breaking to see Tanisha informing her teacher that she was moving away and had to quit the classes. Could not have Mrs. Guaspari said, at least, "I will call you, if you want. I will continue to help you with your violin."?I appreciated Music of the Heart. I love all movies that have to do with music (especially learning it). The Guaspari family went through a great deal of duress as they tried to make ends meet. In the process, they changed some lives. I just would have liked to have gotten to know the characters more; their inner motivation and dreams.

"You want to play the violin, one of the hardest instruments to master? Well, playing the violin costs, and right here is where you start paying, in practice and in sweat!" Paraphrasing Debbie Allen's dance teacher from "Fame" seems so appropriate in describing Meryl Streep in "Music From the Heart". Her performance as the real-life violin teacher, Roberta Guaspari, is so filled with the love of music that Debbie Allen's Lydia had for dance in the movie and TV series of "Fame". Here, the pupils are not students at New York's school of the performing arts, but second graders in East Harlem. At first, they seem to have more important things to do than be disciplined to play an instrument. But as they gain the discipline and love for what they are being taught, their lives change, their parents change, and so does teacher Streep. Even more changing is the East Harlem neighborhood where Streep teaches and lives, and I should know---I live right down the street from where Guaspari lived (at least in this movie).Supporting Streep magnificently is the wonderful Angela Bassett as the good hearted principal who senses Streep's devotion is needed to help give hope to the children who might otherwise be lost in the tough neighborhood they live in. The dozens of children who supply the music also provide the heart, and it is a joy to watch the lights in their eyes go on as they realize the impact of what they are doing.In smaller roles, Aidan Quinn and Cloris Leachman are very good. Leachman has some nice quick moments as Streep's brittle but loving mother. I really wanted to see more of Gloria Estefan as another teacher who befriends Streep while the other teachers spurn her. A scene which stood out in my mind as being emotionally satisfying is the black mother who earlier had pulled her son out of the class, only to ask Streep to take him back when her cynical eyes open to the magic of what Streep has accomplished. The stony glare and coldness of the scared woman magically disappears once she realizes the impact the violin has had on her son. That's what music is all about."They Shall Have Music", a 1939 movie with a "Dead End" kids theme is very similar in its narrative about how music can change lives. It featured Javier Havitz, who is mentioned in a tender scene here in "Music of the Heart" featuring the legendary Isaac Stern. What is amazing for this incredible movie is the direction by none other than horror movie icon Wes Craven.The message of this film is that the only thing every person in this crazy world shares is music, and no matter what language we speak, music will never disappear, and is the one thing that unites us beyond all other barriers.

What could be worse than Meryl Streep with a cute foreign accent condescending to "Ghetto Kids" and tearing up to Stern and Perlman?No,I can't think of anything either.In a movie to leave the Hollywood Cliché devotees dizzy with delight Miss Streep transcends racial and cultural barriers with one bound and turns Harlem in the happy little Rainbow Nation the movies would love it to be.Sorry guys - it just ain't so. Wes Craven - either enormously naive or enormously cynical - has talked up a small but significant victory into a world - class celebratory blubfest with Jew,European and African American all playing - and by extension living - in harmony.Admirable sentiments,laudable intentions?Or downright deception.You be the judge. If closing down music departments in schools means more movies like "Music from the heart" then for heaven's sake reopen them at once. The really sad thing is that by larding the film down with hyperbole and excessive sentiment,the producers have succeeded in denigrating the brave work of Roberta Guaspari.Assuming this was not their intention,it was at least a bad miscalculation.