| Overall Grade: |
B- |
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| Story: |
B- |
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| Acting: |
B+ |
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|
| Direction: |
B |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B- |
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|
Tone-Deaf
by Yahoo! Movies User (movies profile)
Apr 30, 2007
5
of
6 people found this review helpful
Not even Ed Harris can save this poorly composed period pic, this strange casting choice, especially if you recall how Gary Oldman embodied the maestro in Immortal Beloved. But as Jackson Pollock, Harris did bring to life a tormented artist. Give the man a large metal ear trumpet, fright wig, and piano, and maybe its not such crazy casting after all.
Like Immortal Beloved, Copying Beethoven refrains from making the great composer its actual protagonist, viewing him instead through the eyes of someone close to him.
Director Agnieszka Holland (Europa, Europa) doesnt drape the story in finery. This Vienna is rainy, dirty, rat-infested, and full of piss pots. Beethoven throws his possessions all about the place, firing his maids and relishing in rodents because, he says, they scare away the cats. This filth makes for a grand contrast when Beethoven finally debuts the Ninth Symphony in an opulent concert hall, insisting on conducting even though he cant hear the orchestra. This is the films climax, and a spectacular one even if youre not much of a classical-music fan. Beethoven was, after all, the rock star of his time.
However, this climax occurs in the middle of the film, and nothing much happens afterwarda major structural misstep. Instead of sending us out on the concerts high, screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, best known for the two ponderous biopics Ali and Nixon, deliver a film awkwardly composed. |
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