Richard Dreyfuss and the film ‘Mr. Holland’s Opus’

Family friendly films of an after school special quality have their place on the big screen. The film Mr. Holland’s Opus (1995) landed in my film queue over the weekend with positive results for my own personal brand of uplifting in the face of drama.

(Glenne Headly as Iris Holland, left, and Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

The film Mr. Holland’s Opus begins with the notion of the Iris and Glenn Holland changing their perspective of married life after having tried to make a go of the husband’s music and composition career. Richard Dreyfuss played the title role of Glenn while Glenne Headly played the role of Iris.

(Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland, left, and Olympia Dukakis as Principal Helen Jacobs in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

At the beginning of the movie, Glenn and Iris plan to be affixed to the newly minted John F. Kennedy High School in Portland, Oregon for a not too long period. The couple questions the wisdom of the decision, made initially for financial stability, when Glenn runs into initial resistance from Principal Helen Jacobs (played by Olympia Dukakis) and vice principal Gene Wolters (played by William H. Macy), who resent Holland while questioning the value and importance of music education given the school’s strained budget.

(Jay Thomas as Bill Meister, left, and Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

Along comes an epiphany for Mr. Holland, after some well-placed pressure by Jacobs and an insight on how to reach the students. Football coach Bill Meister, played by Jay Thomas, joins with Principal Jacobs in cutting Glenn Holland slack in reaching students in the appreciation of music by incorporating fun into the curriculum. In the mid 1960s, that translated to reaching students through Rock & Roll, Rhythm and Blues, and whatever else will get students to appreciate music. Vice Principal Wolters was less impressed.

(Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland, left, and Terrence Howard as Louis Russ in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

Somewhere about this time, student Louis Russ (played by Terrence Howard) needed a hand getting academic credit in order to wrestle during the winter sports season. Holland agreed to help Russ in exchange for help from Meister with getting the marching band that Holland agreed to take over in marching order. This led to a positive impact for Russ, Holland and Meister while revealing that the relatively new addition to the Holland family, Cole Holland, was severely hard of hearing.

(Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland, left, and Joseph Anderson as Cole Holland in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

As a fresh storyline emerges from the irony of an avid lover of music having overcome the means of reaching his students through music now having the difficulty of reaching his own son. Iris struggles with reaching Cole, too. The financial stress of getting Cole the help he needs to learn tugs upon the couple, in addition to the title character’s desire to compose. Meanwhile, Glenn helps student Gertrude Lang (played by Alicia Witt) connect emotionally with music in a way that adds appreciation and joy for music in a way it hadn’t until the two unlocked that reason why.

(Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland, left, and Alicia Witt as Gertrude Lang in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

The pull of composition, the pull of students, and the effort to keep music in John F. Kennedy High School begins to cause tension at home for the Holland family. Glenn and Iris feel the death of John Lennon keenly, which becomes an emotional rupture between Glenn and Cole for the two have struggled to connect on the level of the passion Glenn feels for something Cole cannot appreciate in the manner many do. An artful solution presents itself, as does what looks like a potentially inappropriate relationship between teacher (Glenn Holland) and student Rowena Morgan. Jean Louisa Kelly played Rowena Morgan. This test gets graded through the course of the movie, as ultimately does the career of Glenn Holland, the perspective of recognition through music composition, and the investment made in relationships and family.

(Jean Louisa Kelly as Rowena Morgan, left, and Richard Dreyfuss as Glenn Holland in Mr. Holland’s Opus).

The film Mr. Holland’s Opus repeatedly asked what the value of music education is within the school curriculum. The further question is what does it mean to be a fully formed human being, which we see in the characters of Glenn Holland, Iris Holland, Cole Holland, Gertrude Lang, Louis Russ, Stadler (as played by Balthazar Getty), Rowena Morgan, and even John F. Kennedy High School staff members Bill Meister, Principal Helen Jacobs and vice principal Gene Wolters. The message of Mr. Holland’s Opus becomes the value of that investing fully in people. That music, teaching and family are celebrated, too, has its clear merit. I rate Mr. Holland’s Opus at 3.75-stars on a scale of one-to-five.

Matt – Wednesday, March 11, 2020

Tom Cruise and the film ‘Vanilla Sky’

Interested in a trippy movie with some top-rated movie stars? Do you like the multi-layered revelation structure of a movie like Inception (2010)? Are dream-involved movies of the subconscious mixed with love, such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004) of interest? Are movies involving dreams of love the hope for better your thing, including the movie What Dreams May Come (1998)? If you’ve answered yes to more than one of the above, then the movie Vanilla Sky (2001) just might be the movie for you.

(Penélope Cruz as Sophia Serrano, left, and Tom Cruise as David Aames).

Tom Cruise stars opposite Penélope Cruz and Cameron Diaz in a movie that may have been a bit ahead of its time. Cameron Crowe directed Vanilla Sky, which performed much better with audiences then it did with critics at the time it was released.

(Cameron Diaz as Julie Gianni)

Cruise is the clear movie lead who portrays a self-indulgent, vain publishing magnate who inherited his publishing house after the death of his parents in an automobile accident. We first meet the character David Aames as he expresses his so-called friendship with Julie Gianni. The scene is a foreshadowing of the story to be revealed later, which now leads us to David’s friend Brian Shelby, portrayed by Jason Lee.

(Jason Lee as Brian Shelby).

It is Brian, aspiring actor by trade and under the influence of his friend David, who introduces David to Sophia Serrano, played by Penélope Cruz. David feels like he’s in a dream, yet immediately expresses his interest in Sophia at David’s birthday party. Within a small period of screen time, the love triangle of David, Julie, and Sophia is established with Brian as the wannabe love interest for both Julie and Sophia to boot.

(Kurt Russell as McCabe)

The love triangle continues to play out as we learn that David is under legal suspicion. We see David in a jail circumstance with McCabe, portrayed by Kurt Russell, trying to get David to share the details for an unknown murder that hangs over David’s head. In the course of this, we get some of the backstory for how David came into his publishing empire, in addition to the fact of Thomas Tipp, portrayed by Timothy Spall, supporting David against an aggressive board of directors out to gain control of the publishing house that David controls.

(Tom Cruise as David Aames, left, and Timothy Spall as Thomas Tipp).

All this is background to plot questions that take the audience into questions of physical attraction, friendship, intimacy, loyalty, promises, and the nature of what each of these demands within the context of a relationship. These questions are all part of the larger questions of the movie, especially of what life has to offer as well as your role in seeking it.

(Noah Taylor as Edmund Ventura).

The questions, after many layers of Vanilla Sky try to speak of questions about mental health, interpersonal relationships, and even the Me Too Movement of a later prominence than the period when this film takes place. In the context of Me Too, Vanilla Sky does not hold up well on all scores. (That is a different blog to be explored later). In the context of the movie, Noah Taylor as Edmund Ventura helps bring clarity to the outer most frame of the movie’s narrative.

Due to the multiple layers of the movie when it was released, my instinct is that many critics of this movie at the time of release inappropriately undervalued the quality of the issues raised and the subject matter explored. Many of the questions indicated were and are socially important. The questions raised in the places where the movie leads are hard, unpleasant, and raise decidedly unpleasant feelings and thoughts in the audience. A 2001 movie audience may not have been ready for these questions. Critics at the time seem to have been.

Blog friend Cobra rates this movie quite highly. My guess is that this has to do with the narrative structure, the emotional questions raised, and the mystery of the layering of the answers to the questions raised. It is with these points in mind that I will rate Vanilla Sky higher that many did at the time of the film’s 2001 release. Acknowledging that the film is challenging in some ways for some audiences is also fair. That all said, I rate this film 3.75-stars out of 5.

Matt – Saturday, December 1, 2018