Too Over-Whelming

Rating: 5/10 (14 November 2010)

The same problem that plagued "Akeelah and the Bee" is present in "Mr. Holland's Opus." The various episodes that occurred through Holland's life are each played with the emotional intensity as appropriate for a climax.
Thus, put together, the film is skewed by such a sequence of highly charged emotional "peaks." The result is that the drama's form is thrown off, and instead of a general rise to a climactic plateau, the entire conceit is full of too many peaks.
By the time the last scene comes, there's no where to go but to pile on the emotion, straining what intensity there is left to the breaking point. If the scenario had been put together with less routinely occurring crises, it would have helped shape the drama more palatably. As it is, by the end I just wanted to say, "Oh please, no more."
Richard Dryfuss puts his all into this effort, and his work is most commendable. It's the writer and director that let him down by not better shaping the film's broad structure. A pity, for this could have been a really significant piece of work set in the public schools.