Advanced Search Beta »
Basic Search Fields
Music of the Heart
Metascore
54 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 33 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 33
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 33
  3. Negative: 2 out of 33
view
per page
  1. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    88
    Wonderful spirit, humanity and humor.
  2. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Kevin Maynard
    77
    The year's first sure-fire Oscar nominee has arrived with flying colors.
  3. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    75
    This one basically just sticks to the real story, which has all the emotional wallop that's needed.
  4. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    75
    Streep is simply amazing to behold, an actress who invests every fiber of her being -- every gesture, every inflection, every strand of hair -- into her performance.
  5. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    75
    No actress of her generation inhabits characters as thoroughly and convincingly as she (Streep) does, and this performance carries the movie
  6. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Susan Wloszczyna
    75
    Yearning for an old-fashioned movie with a well-told, uplifting message? Music of the Heart is playing your song.
  7. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    Avoids the potentially suffocating pall of uplift hovering over its quite exhilarating story.
  8. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    75
    A teary appreciation of the value of a good teacher, the joy of music and the payoffs of discipline and hard work.
  9. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Janet Maslin
    70
    An affirmation of the power of music to provide beauty, pleasure and a sense of accomplishment.
  10. Variety
    Reviewed by: David Stratton
    70
    A gloriously sentimental true-life drama
  11. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Sjohnna McCray
    65
    Bring two boxes of tissue and a girlfriend to lean on for this blowout tearjerker.
  12. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Carrie Rickey
    63
    The choppy film is like a composition crowded with competing themes.
  13. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Chris Kaltenbach
    63
    Tear-inducing feel-gooder that only a curmudgeon could find fault with.
  14. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    60
    If "Mr. Holland's Opus" made you puke, you'd better bring a bucket to this true-life weepie about the importance of teaching music in schools.
    All this critic's reviews
  15. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Tom Keogh
    60
    Streep delivers another of her chameleon-like transformations in appearance, accent, and manner.
  16. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: John Anderson
    60
    A lot of heart and a lot of music. It just doesn't sing.
  17. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Shawn Levy
    58
    So sloppily and unabashedly sentimental that it can make you laugh and cry at the same time -- and often at the same things.
  18. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: David Sterritt
    50
    The story's can-do attitude and moments of soaring music make it a must-see for moviegoers seeking positive visions on the screen.
  19. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Feels more like an earnest commercial for music education than successful entertainment.
  20. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    50
    It all seems terribly familiar.
  21. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    50
    Full of nuanced performances (Streep in particular) and wonderfully enveloping music.
  22. Salon.com
    Reviewed by: Mary Elizabeth Williams
    50
    Falls flat for its skittish reluctance to bear any resemblance to an actual Wes Craven film.
  23. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Jessica Winter
    50
    Solid raw material, but the execution is overcooked.
  24. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Andy Klein
    50
    So uplifting, it's almost...gross.
  25. Newsweek
    Reviewed by: Andrea C. Basora
    50
    In the end, it's just another novice-teacher-takes-on-inner-city-kids-and-nobody's-life-will-ever-be-the-same film
  26. Time
    Reviewed by: Richard Schickel
    50
    What saves this movie from hopeless sentimentality is Meryl Streep's subtle performance.
    All this critic's reviews
  27. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    50
    Self-congratulatory feature, which artificially exalts the character--a classic saint with clay feet--by casting a grande dame and by reducing her motives to facile psychodrama
  28. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Owen Gleiberman
    42
    A sentimental epic that forgets to include the sentiment
  29. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Ella Taylor
    40
    Oh, Mr. Craven, give us a "Scream."
  30. Slate
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    40
    The credits had just started and I was already looking for a barf bag.
  31. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    40
    Another sentimental mushfest disguised as a movie.
  32. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Lou Lumenick
    38
    Watching Meryl Streep act can be an exhausting experience - and never more so than during Music of the Heart.
  33. Charlotte Observer
    Reviewed by: Lawrence Toppman
    38
    Rarely connects with reality.
prev next
Page:
  • 1