Opens October 29, 1999

When I walked into Music of the Heart, I knew only a little bit about Roberta Guaspari. Single mom, inner city violin teacher, champion of the arts for kids. A woman who wowed New York with her "Fiddlefest" at Carnegie Hall which featured her students along with some of the world's greatest violinists. She certainly sounded like a woman whose story should be told. In the hands of -- surprise -- horror meister Wes Craven, Music of the Heart is an intimate, touching and uplifting film, thanks in no small part to the lucent acting of Meryl Streep as Roberta.

Roberta's story starts off seeming more at home in a soap opera. Abandoned by her husband for another woman, she has no idea what to do with her life or how to support her two boys. A chance meeting with an old high school acquaintance Brian Turner (Aidan Quinn), who also becomes her lover briefly, leads Roberta to relocate to New York for a substitute teaching job in East Harlem.

Life in New York is overwhelming for everyone, but especially so for Roberta who juggles troubles at home and school. As a substitute teacher, she is ostracized by the regular instructors. Many of the parents see her as an idealistic "white lady" with notions of changing the world. The students aren't much more welcoming, thus leaving her little energy to deal with her older son Nick who is acting out due to his father's absence.

It's no surprise when Roberta's determination wins out. Inspired by her no nonsense approach, her students start to show real promise, actually hitting the notes rather than massacring the music. Soon her class concerts are one of the most highly anticipated events of each school year. After ten years, Roberta's class becomes so popular that a lottery is held among three schools to choose students. Then, the tragedy (read "plot twist") strikes: The school board revokes funding, Roberta is out of a job and her kids are without violin class. Here, the story really soars as Roberta, school principal Janet Williams (Angela Bassett) and reporter Dorothea von Haeften (Jane Leeves) conceive and mount "Fiddlefest", an ambitious fundraiser to keep Roberta's violin program going.

Now, at first glance, you would never think of Wes Craven in conjunction with a story like this. Where are the blood and guts, the shocks and chills? The answer is simple. Like David Lynch has done with The Straight Story, Craven sought to break the mold, choosing a project that could showcase his sensitivity, not his thrill skills. What he has created may surprise you because it's all about restraint. Craven keeps it simple, letting Roberta's inspiring story tell itself. No fancy camera angles or special effects; in Pamela Gray's generally intuitive script, it's all about the characters.

Luckily, Craven has a handful of gifted actors led by Streep in another flawless performance. As usual, Streep amazes with her saturation in her role. For this film, she apparently learned to play the violin like a pro-- a fact that amazed the professional musicians involved -- and this skill only adds to the richness of her portrayal. Angela Bassett is a perfect foil to Streep, showing a strong command of every scene she's in. Yet, in some ways, the real stars here are the kids themselves, many of whom were played by real students. While some of the line readings are a bit static, all these kids have to do is open their eyes wide and you love them. They add a depth to the film that holds it together.

The real icing is "Fiddlefest" itself, an event that is ( and, in reality, was) daunting in its audacity. Craven's crew recreated the event in every detail with 1,500 extras and fifty students in Carnegie Hall. Remarkably, the celebrated violinists -- including Itzhak Perlman and Isaac Stern -- who performed in the original "Fiddlefest", play themselves, adding a dimension of realism and passion that infuses the scene with energy. In one telling moment, Stern welcomes Roberta to Carnegie Hall, telling her that all the ghosts -- Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky among them -- are with her.

What saves Music of the Heart from being a run-of-the-mill bio-pic is its heroine and her cause. Her belief in our children and in the importance of the arts in their lives is -- as maudlin as it sounds -- truly inspirational. In the hands of Craven, Streep et al, the message is never heavy-handed, but rather a genuine appeal to see how easily the human spirit can soar. Roberta's story proves that one person can make a difference; you walk out of the theater wondering just what you can do to change the world.