Heart-warming but flawed

Rating: 8/10 (1 June 2007)

This is a lovely film, designed successfully to bring tears to the eyes of everyone seeing it. The acting is superb all the way around. Dreyfuss is a wonder. But there are quite a few historical flaws (see the goof section on this film) and mistakes. The lack of synchronization between the musicians and the music is maddening. The caliber of playing is far too high for the age-level of the players in the later stages of the film. And the absolutely stunning Jean Louisa Kelly was too old and too good to be a high school student. (She had recently graduated from Columbia University.) The film is also too long. A treacly bit about a black student who lacked rhythm and then died in Vietnam could easily have been skipped. By the way, at the funeral, the parents of the young man are shown in mourning. But sitting next to them, ostensibly a relative, is a young woman who is smiling during both shots of the family. That's the kind of carelessness that marred this otherwise fine film. One more thing: teachers will know that it isn't that easy to win the hearts and minds of young people. Mr. Holland as an educator must have doing things off camera.