another feel-good film

Rating: 4/10 (18 March 2006)

'Mr. Holland's Opus' is the classic student-teacher relationship film. (This film is similar to 'Renaissance Man'; replace a few keywords in the plot, and you basically get the same story.) Mr. Holland feels like a failure, and he has the desire to create a musical masterpiece. In order to pay the bills, he gets a job as a teacher at a school, and he teaches them how to appreciate music; this allows them to learn how to appreciate life. Simply, this film is another example of one of those feel-good films that fills you with a lot of hope. It moves a little slowly, but I think it succeeds in providing the viewer with a sense of hope. Not an excellent film, but it is not a great one either.