nvswann Loved the film, so inspiring. Glad they picked Meryl, she really made the film. Well of course the kids did too. I'm glad to know the real kids were involved. What a great program for a lot of troubled kids. It takes a lot of courage to create a program like this, I'm sure the real teacher had her work cut out for her. God bless all of the teachers who are as devoted to helping kids as she was. It's a lesson for everyone how we can change people lives of other around us. I wasn't really expecting to like the film when it started. But it did take me long to go get my mom and share it with her. Kids, if directed can do amazing things! Sometime you have to give up (such as a romance) to get the job done. I recommend it highly!

SnoopyStyle 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.

ilovegod24801 I,in my opinion,out of all of Meryl Streep's movies,think that this is her best performance ever."Music of the Heart" was a movie that took me a long time time to finally watch because I had it in my collection for over 5 years,but when I finally got down to watching it,I was blown away.When I watch this movie,I wonder,if her husband had not left her,Roberta would never have inspired people the way she did and still does today.I think that Meryl's performance truly shows us that,in whatever you do,people are watching,and you can make a difference in someone's life,in whatever profession you are in.It shows in the film how many hours a day Meryl practiced the violin.My favorite scene is the Carnegie Hall event.

ianlouisiana 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.