Unabashedly cornball tribute to the inspirational educator, from the director of the unabashedly bonehead Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, Stephen Herek. It's from the Disney folks as well, who have made the subject into something of a staple: Dead Poets Society, Renaissance Man, Dangerous Minds, not to mention the attached branch of films to do with athletic coaches whipping into shape a ragtag sports team (e.g., Herek's own The Mighty Ducks). In this case our hero is a high-school music teacher, who pushes aside his preferred vocation as a composer while he supplements his class load with private tutorials, summer driving instruction, extracurricular band practice, senior-class plays, plus a deaf son (oh, cruel irony!) with the first name of Coltrane and the middle name of Gershwin. When we finally hear the piece of music he has been tinkering on in his spare time for thirty years -- "The American Symphony" -- it lasts but a few minutes and sounds like John-Tesh-with-Strings. It chills the heart. Richard Dreyfuss, Glenne Headly, Olympia Dukakis, W.H. Macy. (1995) — Duncan Shepherd
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