Word: streep
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...rowdy inner-city kids who succumb to the pedagogue's tough love and succeed despite overwhelming odds. In this case, they are a Harlem violin ensemble achieving a Carnegie Hall concert that saves their program from budget cuts. What saves this movie from hopeless sentimentality is Meryl Streep's subtle performance as the teacher, hinting at all kinds of neuroses sublimated in her gnarly relations with the kids...
...Meryl Streep, Angela Bassett, and Gloria Estefan (yup, the singer) star in Wes Craven's newest film, based on the documentary Small Wonders--the account of Roberta Guaspari, a single mother who moves to East Harlem to teach the violin to underprivileged children. Even though the film moves a bit slowly at the beginning where Roberta's personal life is the dominant plot-line, Meryl Streep is (as always) refreshing in her portrayal of Guaspari and compensates for the slow start. Streep's characterization of the man-dependent and recently divorced Navy wife is humorous and real...
...great acting is rounded out by Angela Bassett who plays Janet Reeves, the stubborn high school principal. Bassett is loud and emotional in her portrayal--the determination of her character shines right through. Moreover, Bassett and Streep complement each other well during many pivotal moments in the movie. When Guaspari's funding for the music program is cut and Reeves is unable to save it despite exhausting her efforts, the angry exchange between Streep and Bassett conveys the helplessness and frustration that many educators surely feel toward the politics of the education system. I was sold...
...Aside from the acting, one of the most impressive aspects of the film is the technical feat achieved in its production. Each actor in the film plays their own instrument. Streep had never played any musical instrument before, but after two months of lessons, she jumped into classroom scenes that required her to simultaneously play and instruct students. More than half of the 150 children who appeared in the film have studied with the real Roberta Guaspari. Most have never acted. If Craven was aiming for reality, then he surely...
...play Bach's Double Concerto with her and her students on the stage of Carnegie Hall. Together, they raised more than $300,000 to keep violins in the schools of Harlem. The story inspired an Oscar-winning documentary and The Music of My Heart, a Miramax film starring Meryl Streep, to be released in October. "When I first observed Roberta in class, I thought she was very hard on her kids," recalls Streep. "But her rationale was that it's a way of according respect to the discipline...