note : ordinarily , moviereviews . org will not give away any critical plot points of a film that could be interpreted as " spoilers . " 
however , being that music of the heart is based on a true story and that moviereviews . org 
feels the film can not be properly credited without such revelations , plot giveaways will appear in the following review . 
if this bothers you , please note the 3 star rating of the film and stop reading now . 
 " what does it take to play carnegie hall ? 
practice . " 
it takes two hours for music of the heart to " play carnegie hall , " both figuratively and literally . 
like the children it portrays , the movie starts from the dark realms of awful cinema and works its way up to a show-stopping performance at the legendary concert hall . 
roberta guaspari ( academy award winner meryl streep ) has two kids , a husband who left her and 50 violins she bought from a small shop in the mediterranean . 
her life desperately needs a jump start and gets one when she meets a man who introduces her to a job as a music teacher at an east harlem elementary school . 
she soon finds her job is on the rocks as the men in her life continue to rotate through revolving doors . 
that is the pattern-like plot of this production . 
ultimately , the film chooses a zero-sum answer to these problems and finds her music career at an all-time high when the men in her life finally vanish . 
the first hour of music of the heart is rather painful . 
roberta's character lacks development and consequently seems to be flat . 
also lacking depth is the film's " bad guy , " a narrow-minded music teacher ( josh pais ) who rejects roberta out of principle ( the movie never explains exactly which principle that is ) and conveniently comes and goes from the plot according to when it might be dramatic to have a villain around . 
the next 15 minutes of the film are mediocre . 
they are highlighted by one child's return to roberta's class ( coming after the great old hollywood scene where he explains be can't be around anymore because " my mom said . . . " ) and a glowing concert . 
not knowing the running time , you may expect the credits to role at this point . 
but they don't . 
instead the film uses the next 45 minutes to finish its journey from bad to mediocre to excellent . 
director wes craven , known for his works of horror , uses some old sentimental tricks to get the audience tearing . 
one romantic break up scene is highlighted by the classic " but . . . 
last night . . . " 
and roberta's two children also have textbook conflicts with their single mother regarding their father's absence . 
the city of harlem plays a strong role in the movie . 
roberta's mother is initially reluctant to see her daughter move to that part of town and the film does nothing to combat that stereotype . 
the noise tracks for these scenes are dominated by sirens ; predictably one of roberta's students is gunned down and killed off screen . 
one thing the film does lack is subtlety . 
the fact that a little boy was playing " we shall overcome " on his violin after the aforementioned shooting was a cute and discreet reference . 
the fact that the entire orchestra begins to play it over and over soon after is an overdone reference that shows how little credit he gives the audience . 
 ( of course , in horror films the foreshadowing and between-the-line moments are meant to be overdone , so perhaps he too is just learning to play the game . ) 
even with all its flaws , music of the heart is a beautiful film . 
that is not an excuse for the movie's poor beginning . 
but as i watched the scenes in carnegie hall , i thought of some of the great acts that have taken that stage . 
in december of 1979 a comedian named andy kaufman put on a show that will forever be remembered as one of the most original in theatre history . 
the performance included a dead-on elvis impression , robin williams in disguise and a moment at the end when kaufman announced he would take the whole audience out for milk and cookies . 
so , how did this comic genius choose to open the show of his life ? 
he had a character named tony clifton take the stage for the sole purpose of irritating and angering the audience . 
perhaps it is okay for music of the heart to start off rusty because just as kaufman had santa's favorite food , this movie has an amazing finale .