Movie «Music of the Heart» (1999)

    Movie's ratings

    « She gave them a gift they could never imagine. They gave the system a fight it would never forget.»
    Country
    Spoken Language
    Runtime 2 hr 4 min
    Budget $27 000 000
    Premiere: World $14 936 407 November 25, 1999
    USA $14 859 394
    Other countries $77 013
    Box Office – Budget – $12 063 593
    Premiere: USA $14 859 394 October 29, 1999
    first day $1 115 000
    theaters 1353
    rollout 430 days
    Digital: World January 8, 2013
    Production Companies

    About the film Music of the Heart

    After Roberta Guaspari separates from her husband, she receives encouragement from her mother to take up a job of a music teacher at the Central Park East School in East Harlem.

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    Сast and Crew

    The True Story Behind "Music of the Heart"

    Introduction

    Music of the Heart is a film that draws inspiration from the real-life story of Roberta Guaspari, a violin teacher who made a significant impact on the lives of her students in East Harlem, New York City. The film captures her dedication and the challenges she faced in bringing music education to underprivileged children.

    Roberta Guaspari's Journey

    Roberta Guaspari began her teaching career in the late 1980s when she co-founded the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music. Despite facing numerous obstacles, including budget cuts and skepticism from the community, Guaspari was determined to provide quality music education to children who otherwise would not have had the opportunity.

    Challenges and Triumphs

      • Guaspari's program started with just a few violins and a handful of students. Her passion and commitment quickly attracted more students and support from the community.

      • She faced significant challenges, including the threat of her program being cut due to lack of funding. However, her perseverance and the success of her students helped secure the program's future.

      • Guaspari's efforts culminated in a benefit concert at Carnegie Hall, which featured renowned musicians and helped raise awareness and funds for her program.

    Film vs. Reality

    The film Music of the Heart stays largely true to the real-life events and struggles faced by Roberta Guaspari. While some artistic liberties were taken for dramatic effect, the core story of her dedication and the impact of her work on the community remains intact.

    The film highlights the importance of arts education and the difference one passionate individual can make in the lives of many. It serves as a testament to Guaspari's legacy and the enduring power of music.

    Production

    Roberta Guaspari and the Opus 118 Harlem School of Music was featured in the 1995 documentary film Small Wonders, which was later nominated for an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. After seeing Small Wonders, Wes Craven, known for his work on horror films, was inspired to make a full-length film about Guaspari. Immediately following a phenomenally successful preview screening of Scream, Miramax co-founders Harvey and Bob Weinstein offered him a three-picture deal via Dimension Films; two of the films would be in the horror genre, while the third film would be a "petticoat film", a costume drama for which the Weinsteins were known at the time. Craven, both a former teacher and a fan of classical music, chose to pursue Music of the Heart as his "petticoat film", explaining, "It's sort of a culmination of almost 30 years trying to do something outside of the genre. Not because I don’t like the genre, but because I'm a person … an artist who wants to do a lot of different things. Just never before has that opportunity been presented."

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    Critique: 29

    34%
    10 0

    Full of nuanced performances (Streep in particular) and wonderfully enveloping music.

    Bring two boxes of tissue and a girlfriend to lean on for this blowout tearjerker.

    The credits had just started and I was already looking for a barf bag.

    Watching Meryl Streep act can be an exhausting experience – and never more so than during Music of the Heart.

    The year’s first sure-fire Oscar nominee has arrived with flying colors.

    Falls flat for its skittish reluctance to bear any resemblance to an actual Wes Craven film.

    Tear-inducing feel-gooder that only a curmudgeon could find fault with.

    Oh, Mr. Craven, give us a «Scream.»

    A sentimental epic that forgets to include the sentiment

    Streep is simply amazing to behold, an actress who invests every fiber of her being – every gesture, every inflection, every strand of hair&nb...

    A gloriously sentimental true-life drama

    A teary appreciation of the value of a good teacher, the joy of music and the payoffs of discipline and hard work.

    An affirmation of the power of music to provide beauty, pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.

    This one basically just sticks to the real story, which has all the emotional wallop that’s needed.

    What saves this movie from hopeless sentimentality is Meryl Streep’s subtle performance.

    Avoids the potentially suffocating pall of uplift hovering over its quite exhilarating story.

    Wonderful spirit, humanity and humor.

    Streep delivers another of her chameleon-like transformations in appearance, accent, and manner.

    No actress of her generation inhabits characters as thoroughly and convincingly as she (Streep) does, and this performance carries the movie

    It all seems terribly familiar.

    A lot of heart and a lot of music. It just doesn’t sing.

    The choppy film is like a composition crowded with competing themes.

    Self-congratulatory feature, which artificially exalts the character--a classic saint with clay feet--by casting a grande dame and by reducing...

    If «Mr. Holland’s Opus» made you puke, you’d better bring a bucket to this true-life weepie about the importance of teaching music...

    Solid raw material, but the execution is overcooked.

    So sloppily and unabashedly sentimental that it can make you laugh and cry at the same time – and often at the same things.

    Yearning for an old-fashioned movie with a well-told, uplifting message? Music of the Heart is playing your song.

    Feels more like an earnest commercial for music education than successful entertainment.

    Another sentimental mushfest disguised as a movie.

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