A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (26 August 1999)

An all-star cast headed by Richard Dreyfuss traces the 30 year career of a music teacher. Glen Holland is a composer who takes a job as a high school music teacher as a waystop. His initial days are a flop as he is unable to inspire his students. He begins to put more into his work and slowly but surely his classes and the school band become more time consuming and successful as his composing is pushed to a side project. He and his wife, played by Glenne Headly have a son who it turns out is deaf. This is a crushing blow to a man whose whole life revolves around the sound of music. He has no idea how to reach his son and neglects him. The years go by and the episodic events go on, but these are not just throwaway scenes as they advance the notion that one man's work is not just what he himself produces but what he inspires other's to do with their own lives. Olympia Dukakis, Jay Thomas, William H. Macy, Jean Louisa Kelly and Alicia Witt also star.