Music of the Heart

The fictionalized version of an Oscar-winning documentary called Small Wonders (reviewed in VL-1/96 under the original title Fiddlefest), this up-lifting drama stars Meryl Streep as a transplanted music teacher who inspires hundreds of East Harlem kids to take up the violin, while battling over slashes in school music programs by budget-cutting bureaucrats. Horrormeister director Wes Craven's (A Nightmare On Elm Street, Scream) bid for respectability doesn't much rise above elementary sentimentality, but the film is often effective and affecting, thanks in large part to being tent-poled by Streep's outstanding performance as well as good supporting turns by co-stars Angela Bassett, Aidan Quinn and singer Gloria Estefan. A strong optional purchase. (R. Blackwelder)