Much as they bristle, they prefer the old Mrs. Guaspari. She's blunt and demanding, but they know she cares. While Streep is the star, Music of the Heart is hardly a solo act. In superb support, Angela Bassett is almost as noteworthy playing the principal, a strong woman who has to walk a tightrope between the students, parents, teachers and the bureaucracy. Backing up Streep and Bassett is a beautiful mosaic of children, bright-eyed but underprivileged kids brimming with both mischief and a shy eagerness to learn.
Class is their safe haven in a poor neighborhood where gang shootings are an everyday danger.
This is a movie to savor and applaud, and not only for Streep's virtuoso and varied performance. In one scene she righteously explodes at a group of inept workers remodeling her home. She reloads in time to demolish her fickle boyfriend with an achingly honest ultimatum. But Roberta is just as often vulnerable, getting down on her hand and knees to tell her son the awful truth about how Dad doesn't love Mom anymore. Screenwriter Gray gives the characters simple, direct dialogue that keeps what might have been a trite drama on a elevated level.