Synopsis
In 1965, passionate musician Glenn Holland takes a day job as a high school music teacher, convinced it's just a small obstacle on the road to his true calling: writing a historic opus. As the decades roll by with the composition unwritten but generations of students inspired through his teaching, Holland must redefine his life's purpose.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Richard DreyfussGlenn Holland
- Glenne HeadlyIris Holland
- Jay ThomasBill Meister
- Olympia DukakisPrincipal Jacobs
- William H. MacyVice Principal Gene Wolters
- Alicia WittGertrude Lang
- Terrence HowardLouis Russ
- Damon WhitakerBobby Todd
- Jean Louisa KellyRowena Morgan
- Alexandra BoydSarah Olmstead
Recommendations
- 91
Entertainment Weekly
The film captures how the constant turnover of students keeps educators poised between loss and rebirth, fuddy-duddyism and eternal kiddishness. That balance is there, most pleasurably, in Dreyfuss’ performance. The wonders of makeup and hairpieces have taken 20 years off his age, and his acting feels 20 years younger, too. He has an edgy vigor here that recalls his ebullient star turns of the late ’70s. - 88
Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Dreyfuss, who is sometimes too exuberant, here finds the right tones for Mr. Holland, from youthful cocksureness to the gentle insight of age. His physical transformations over 30 years are always convincing. - 88
San Francisco Chronicle
Mr. Holland's Opus is a glowing tribute to the unsung heroics of those rare, gifted teachers who make a difference in life. Richard Dreyfuss, in a performance that both touches and inspires, plays music teacher Glenn Holland. - 80
Time Out
Dreyfuss' exemplary performance shows how selfishly Holland neglects his own family in favour of his pupils, and it's clear how conservative politics impinge even on music classes. A middle-brow melodrama which functions as the thinking person's Forrest Gump. Music to my ears. - 75
ReelViews
It's a symphony of solid storytelling and good feeling that pays tribute to Hollywood's rarely-seen, gentler side. - 70
The New York Times
In Mr. Holland's Opus, Mr. Dreyfuss gives a warm and really touching performance. He's firmly in control of the film's comic moments and just as comfortable delivering the film's calculatingly Capraesque payoff: a good cry. - 63
Rolling Stone
Forrest Gump lives in spirit in this overbearing tear-jerker that takes two and a half hours to cover three baby-boom decades in an effort to prove that nice guys finish first, at least in the hearts of academy voters. - 60
Empire
Despite the schmaltz this reviewer lapped it up, not least for the engaging teens, including Alicia Witt, and the spectacle of Dreyfuss strutting his wily stuff to Louie, Louie.
