We saw the 1999 film ‘Music of the Heart’ back in 2009, and watched it again only four years later. But it was definitely time to re-watch. I recalled finding it a moving and extremely well-done film, and that it was based on a true story. But, as ever, we had both forgotten most of the detail. We watched it again last night, and enjoyed it just as much - possibly even more, as we had at least a general idea of how it would end.
Meryl Streep stars, brilliantly as ever, as a young woman called Roberta. We meet her when she’s in tears, beginning to realise that her straying husband is not going to return. She has two sons, Nick and Lexy, and they are staying with her mother (Cloris Leachman) temporarily. But that really isn’t working out. Roberta manages to find a job in a shop, and there she meets Brian (Aidan Quinn) an old school-friend, who says he always liked her but she was never attainable.
They have coffee together, and talk about what they have been doing. Brian remembers Roberta as an excellent musician, and comes up with the idea of her going to teach violin at a struggling primary school in Harlem. She has to push quite hard to be offered a temporary post, but although the music coordinator is not sympathetic, the school Head (Angela Bassett) is.
It’s a struggle at first, trying to find the right way to relate to a very mixed group of children, many of whom have no knowledge of music, and little interest in playing. Roberta comes up against the prejudice of not just the music coordinator but others of the staff, and some of the parents, too. But gradually she eases her way into the hearts of her students, and even convinces some of the parents of the value of music to their children. There’s a very moving scene when they give their first concert: just simple renditions of well-known pieces, but played beautifully.
The action then moves forwards ten years. Roberta’s programme has become so popular that there’s a lottery for children who hope to be part of it. And then the school district decides to cut out extra music, to save money. But she’s determined to fight this, and comes up with the idea of a fund-raising concert…
The ending is quite exciting; less stressful than it was for me the first time around, since I knew what was coming, but still I was gripped, caught up in the action, rooting for Roberta and her students, thrilled by the conclusion - and the brief text at the end that explains how the film was based on a true story.
Meryl Streep is the main reason we were so drawn into this film: she doesn’t just act, she becomes the characters she plays, to the extent that we quite forget about the actress during her films. Apparently she spent two months learning to play the violin to this level, working six hours per day, as she did all the playing herself.
But she’s not the only one: her sons, both as their younger selves and their older teenage selves, played by a different pair of actors, are believable, talented and with great chemistry. And the children Roberta teaches are also excellent. I don’t know where they came from - perhaps some of them were children taught by the real Roberta, or maybe they came from another music school. Wherever they were found, they were superb, not just at playing (initially badly, eventually extremely well) but also in their characterisation and interactions with each other and Roberta.
We thought it a wonderful film, all the more so for seeing it again, and I hope we’ll watch it again in another five or six years. The rating is PG, which seems about right; only mild bad language, only mild violence, and the only implied scene of intimacy shows nothing other than Roberta covered with a sheet in the morning, concerned that her boys might have heard something.
The romantic threads are very low-key, and there are some light-hearted touches here and there which made us smile. But overall it’s an uplifting, moving and ultimately encouraging film about the power of music in children’s lives, and one ordinary, but determined woman who inspired so many.
Very highly recommended.
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