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There are certain pleasures that one does not necessarily share with ones acquaintances. Perhaps an odd food combination, a sappy song, . . .or a film that is more to you than it should be.

Mr Holland's Opus is a secret pleasure of mine. Given the heavy rotation it enjoys on the cable channels, it must be a secret pleasure of many others.


Richard Dreyfuss is the titular Mr. Holland, who dreams of creating his own music, of writing and finishing his own symphony. To pay the bills, to support his family, he sells his body, but not his soul, and becomes a high school music teacher.

At first just a job, Mr. Holland soon learns that he has a 'family' that is reborn and renewed every fall. Into his charge come new students still learning the ways of life, still learning the habits and skills that create living, thinking, and creative men and women.


At first the dry, 'open your text to page...' teacher that we all remember from our own HS days, Dreyfuss soon learns that using the language of the day, the music of the day, is a more effective way to reach his students with the values of music, the thinking skills required to understand and play it, and the long-term value of that knowledge and discipline in their lives.


The usual stereotypes of HS teachers and administrators fill the film. But they are imbued with realism and passion by the actors: Jay Thomas as the free-spirited football coach, Olympia Dukakis as caring Principal Helen Jacobs, William H. Macy as the stern disciplinarian and 'bean-counter' Vice Principal.


Mr Holland's home life is consumed by his on-again, off-again attempts to write his unfinished symphony, his luke-warm relationship with his wife (Glenne Headly), their unexpected pregnancy, and the incredible joy of the birth of a son followed by the crushing realization that his son will never be able to fulfill the dreams of his music-loving father. In this ongoing rush of life Mr Holland finds he has indeed surrendered his soul—and apparently his dream—to his students, to his profession, to his ennobling quest to infect his charges with his love of music and all that it can bring to them and to their lives.


The story is filled with numerous vignettes that show us his concern and care for his students. Teaching them, mentoring them, loving them, being tempted by them, and, ultimately letting each of them go. All the while the story arc of his wife and child fighting to find their own place in his life forms the background for the story of Mr. Holland being consumed with his teaching and his composing.


The film transitions cleverly through 30-some years at John F. Kennedy High School. As the students and stories change, the film cleverly 'time jumps' by using period music and news film to move from the sixties to the nineties. Topical subjects as dissimilar as student's skirt lengths, the 'evil of rock and roll', Vietnam, the death of John Lennon, and educational budget cuts are all dealt with in Mr. Holland's Opus.


The film is about music, about high school life, about learning, about loving, about growth, surrender, and loss. It is also about the insignificant events of every day, the 'notes' of ordinary days, that eventually coalesce into the song of our lives.


The Bottom Line
Mr Holland's Opus shares the 'notes' of one man's life. Some are bitter, most are sweet, many take my breath away. The film's message of the intrinsic value of growth and fostering growth in others is not lost on this viewer. Hopefully this Opus will not be lost on you.



Certified 'Lean-n-mean' review.
 
 

Recommended:
Yes