Music of the Heart (Miramax Collector's Series)

Drama, Music

Meryl Streep	Roberta Guaspari
Angela Bassett	Janet Williams
Aidan Quinn	Brian Turner
Kieran Culkin	Lexi at 15
Gloria Estefan	Isabel Vasquez
Jane Leeves	Dorothea von Haeften
Jay O. Sanders
Cloris Leachman	Assunta Guaspari
Charlie Hofheimer	Nick at 17
Michael Angarano	Nick at 7
Henry Dinhofer	Lexi at 5

Director	Wes Craven
Producer	Marianne Maddalena; Susan Kaplan
Writer	Pamela Gray

Why, you might ask, would Wes Craven direct a conventional biopic about Roberta Guaspari, a divorced mother of two who created an acclaimed music program in East Harlem's troubled school system? After all, Craven built his career on Freddy Krueger and the Scream trilogy, and you won't find razor-tipped gloves or a single drop of blood in Music of the Heart. All Craven has to do is provide a safe working environment for Meryl Streep (who earned an obligatory Oscar nomination), sublimate his deft directorial style, and surrender to the banalities of Pamela Gray's screenplay, which would've played more effectively on cable TV.

To be fair, Music of the Heart (partially inspired by the 1996 documentary Small Wonders) serves its purpose quite nicely. Streep is flawless in a non-showy role, and the story of Guaspari's celebrated violin training program provides the requisite rush of inner-city inspiration. As a fact-based companion to Mr. Holland's Opus, the film is less effective but similarly engaging; you'd have to be cold-hearted to dismiss it altogether. It's best when focusing on Guaspari's school program and the 10-year struggle to keep it alive; the drama falters when dealing half-heartedly with her tentative relationships, notably with a journalist (Aidan Quinn) who shies from commitment. And Craven? He seems content to direct by the numbers here, leaving inspiration on the screen while forfeiting his own. --Jeff Shannon