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Verdict: The Meryl Streep Show — and what a show it is.

Details: Starring Meryl Streep and Angela Bassett. Directed by Wes Craven. Rated PG for language. 2 hours, 3 minutes.

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Review: It sounds like a "Saturday Night Live" skit. Wes Craven ("Nightmare on Elm Street" and the "Scream" series) directs Meryl Streep (two Oscars), as an inner-city music teacher.

But as it turns out, the joke's on us. Yes, "Music of the Heart" — wretched title — is at heart a glorified TV movie. But Streep's extraordinary performance makes this the rare inspirational movie that actually is, well, inspirational.

The story, which is true, previously provided the basis for an Oscar-nominated documentary, "Small Wonders." In the late 1980s, Roberta Guaspari (Streep) finds herself abandoned by her husband with two children to raise. Given that she gave up a promising music career to be a full-time parent, job prospects are limited. But a chance encounter with an old school pal (Aidan Quinn) reaps an introduction to an East Harlem school principal (Angela Bassett). Over the protest of the tenured music instructor — a pasty-faced and paper-thin antagonist who's the kind of mistake the movie often makes — Roberta gets a job teaching violin.

During the film's first half, she overcomes everything from reluctant students to confrontational parents. "My son has better things to do than learn dead white man's music," says one. But Roberta's persistence pays off, and her class becomes a showcase and an institution. In the second half, however, she's forced to do battle with a budget-conscious school board that thinks music — dead white man's or otherwise — is a nonessential.

The film's triumphant ending isn't unexpected; that's the kind of movie this is. What is unexpected is how absolutely satisfying it is. Like the similarly themed "Mr. Holland's Opus," "Music of the Heart" wins you over almost in spite of yourself. Almost in spite of itself, too. There are some too-gooey moments, and adding Gloria Estefan, in her acting debut, to the mix as a sympathetic teacher underscores the movie's own awareness of how uncool it is. But cool is hardly the point when you have cameos by the likes of Isaac Stern and Itzhak Perlman. Or the chance to hear "We Shall Overcome" on the violin.

And then there's Streep, who takes a potential cliché and turns her into a full-bodied, compelling character.

There are more challenging movies around. More original ones, too. But "Music of the Heart" gets the job done, efficiently and entertainingly.

— Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Cox News Service

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