Review of Mr. Holland's Opus (1995) by Claudette A — 11 Sep 2010

Mr. Glen Holland (Richard Dreyfuss) suddenly finds himself teaching music at a high school, when he would much rather be a big time composer. Over time though, he grows to love teaching and inspires every one of his students. Richard Dreyfuss is amazing as always in "Mr. Holland's Opus". It's such an uplifting movie. I never use that word, but uplifting is the perfect word to describe it.

At first Mr. Holland rants about how he HATES teaching. "You cannot teach these children! They just sit there!" - he yells. But as the movie progresses he learns to love it. "I got dragged into this gig kicking and screaming, and now it's the only thing I wanna do...".

The first half-hour gives off a pretty cheesy vibe. But it gets much much better as it goes along. "Mr. Holland's Opus" is really about Holland as a teacher, not him inspiring one particular class or grade. A fair amount of time passes in this movie. Holland and his wife have a kid, their kid grows up, his students graduate, former students die, Holland helps organise the school play, and the story continues. I liked that.

Once Holland realises that if he really believes in the kids, he can teach them anything - he starts to really love being a teacher. There were some really sad moments in the movie. I definitely got more than a little bit teary, more than once... but a few of those times it was more happy-crying than sad-crying. This movie is ultimately a happy movie, not a sad one. So don't worry about that. The story stretches over a few decades, from the 60s to the 90s, which was really interesting. Everything changed around him but Holland was in the same place.

"Mr. Holland's Opus" is an excellent look at a music teacher's struggles and triumphs not just in teaching, but in life.