Music of the Heart

Music of the Heart is a drama based on the true story of a divorced woman, Roberta Guaspari, who finds new meaning in life when she is hired at a school in a deprived neighbourhood in Harlem.

Roberta's self-esteem takes a real knock when her husband leaves her and their two sons. The only thing Roberta has mastered is playing the violin, so when she badly needs a job to support herself and the boys, she starts teaching the violin. Roberta meets a lot of resistance, however, both from the school's teachers and from the children's parents, who cannot see why on earth their children should learn to play the violin. Roberta's teaching principles also come in for criticism, but gradually the people around her realise that the children are getting more out of it than just being able to strum a few strings. They learn discipline, that hard work pays off, and they acquire a special pride.

Harlem is a poor neighbourhood, so despite Roberta's success her teaching is threatened with closure. What is to be done? How about a concert in support of the violin teaching? It turns out to be a concert that performers and audience alike will not soon forget.

The plot tends towards the episodic with its many time jumps, and the film would have benefited from being cut down. Moreover, it becomes more than a little sentimental towards the end, but its story of hope and willpower is nonetheless both believable and entertaining.