Copying Beethoven Review

"Copying Beethoven" reviews

Movie

Copying Beethoven

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2009-10-21 13:38:21

Rating

2/5

Provider

CinemaSource

Review

While acting students may consider Copying Beethoven a homework assignment, moviegoers won't get much more than affirmation—except the fact Ed Harris is still great.

Story

Don't worry, nobody's plagiarizing the great composer here. A copyist is just someone who takes the messy notes of a mad genius and turns them into neat musical sheets orchestras can read. Copyist Anna Holz (Diane Kruger), a student at the Vienna Music Conservatory, gets a killer job working with Ludwig Van Beethoven (Ed Harris) at the peak of his success. While she witnesses him compose his famous Ninth Symphony, Anna works on her own composition, hoping Beethoven will impart some of his genius. Of course, learning from a master is no easy task. Just ask Luke Skywalker. Beethoven trashes not only Anna's work but her fiancé's work, too. He may be mean, but perhaps his comments are painfully truthful. Beethoven challenges Anna's perception of art and presses her to find her true musical voice. Anna is a fictional character based on a composite of music students, including some males. Since she doesn't really exist, it makes the whole movie feel like a shallow device just to set up Harris' performance as the well-known legend.

Acting

The Oscar-nominated Harris is brilliant for sure. His flamboyant theatrics make Ludwig Van Beethoven a wild man, not some stodgy old guy whose music plays in the dentist's waiting room. At this stage in his life, his deafness is not total. He wears a primitive appliance for a hearing aid, but Harris never plays up the disability. It's just a fact of the character's life. As well, Harris' subtle accent makes it feel foreign enough but easy to understand. Kruger (National Treasure) has little to do next to Harris. It seems her whole function is to act as a sounding board for Beethoven. She takes his abuse with repressed calm and goes all doe-eyed for the slightest feedback. It's not her fault, since that's all the film asks of her. Other actors read from the Period Pieces for Dummies handbook. As Anna's fiancé, Matthew Goode (Match Point) just rags on her employer as a symbol of the independence that makes his life inconvenient. Music fans from the 19th century just fawn all over Beethoven like ego serving masses.

Direction

Director Agnieszka Holland creates a believable 19th century Vienna. Costumes look appropriately frilly, language is appropriately dated and the sets range from lavish concert halls to dingy hovels. One assumes Ed Harris needs no guidance, so all credit for portraying Beethoven goes to him. The overshadowing nature of his character is inherent to the role but no one rises to the challenge of measuring up to him. The script doesn't create any interest in the copyist outside of providing Beethoven a forum to show how outrageous and impossible he is. Since we know she doesn't exist, we know she's not going to become famous in her own right. There's no drama to the mentor story. It would have been nice to see a guy like Beethoven meet his match, real or imagined. But as just another portrait of an artist, the story seems unnecessary. The composer's life has been told many time, with much more compelling mystery such as in Immortal Beloved. Copying Beethoven offers nothing more worthwhile. It's the kind of movie made purely for acting awards, which is really unfair to audiences who deserve at least some story for their money.

Bottom Line

Hollywood.com rated this film 2 stars.

Movie

Copying Beethoven

Author

anonymous

Date reviewed

2007-08-10 14:40:26

Provider

Review

The most celebrated composer of all time, Beethoven's legacy is all the more impressive because of his disability that in his later life he was deaf. Copying Beethoven centres on those final years, as he struggles with creeping deafness, loneliness and family trauma, albeit with some artistic licence - namely making it a love story.

The opening scene shows Ludwig van Beethoven (played by Ed Harris) on his deathbed, being comforted by his student Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) and immediately establishes the emotional intensity of their relationship. The film then goes back in time to show Holtz, a 23-year-old aspiring, but penniless, composer who travels to the music capital of the world, Vienna, to study. By a stroke of luck, Holtz is recommended to Beethoven's publisher, Wenzel Schlemmer (Ralph Riach), who is desperately looking for a copyist to help the great man finish a score in time for the first performance of his Ninth Symphony. When the skeptical Beethoven - disapproving of a female assistant - issues an impromptu challenge, Anna impresses him with her competence and musical insight. As Anna becomes torn between her engineer lover Martin Bauer (Matthew Goode) and her idol Beethoven, we watch the maestro and student begin a remarkable relationship that will transform both of their lives and produce arguably the greatest symphony ever written.

Directed by Agnieszka Holland (The Secret Garden), Copying Beethoven has a captivating if overly romantic plot. It's packed with twists and turns; including subplots that explore Beethoven's difficult relationship with his young nephew, and his out-of-control gambling debts. Whilst Harris gives a riveting performance, totally inhabiting his role of the complex artist, sometimes wounded beast, painfully aware that his life is fading the rest of the cast struggle and some hamming is in evidence. However, the platonic chemistry between Harris and Kruger as idolised old man and bright-eyed young student is convincing even if it probably is a flight of fantasy. If you can allow yourself to swoon past the factual indiscretions you'll be able to enjoy the beautiful cinematography - the movie was filmed in both Budapest and London - that provides a powerful emotional backdrop.

Unsurprisingly the soundtrack is outstanding and along with Harris's performance the highlight of a slightly incidental and incomplete attempt to unearth Beethoven's complicated character. Whether you're a fan of classical music is unimportant as if character dramas or romantic period epics are you thing, this will be a must-see film.