An average movie

To be honest, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since there was a decent cast involved, I thought I might as well check it out. Well, I have to admit that I didn’t know much about Ludwig van Beethoven so it was definitely pretty neat to see a movie focusing on this great musical genius. Unfortunately, the movie itself was not really amazing though. Indeed, instead of focusing on Beethoven himself, they told the story from the point of view of Anna Holtz, a woman who helped with copying his Ninth Symphony. I won’t blame Diane Kruger, she was lovely as usual and she did what she could with the material but her character was just not interesting enough (the fact that Beethoven didn’t work at all with a woman as a copyist back then certainly didn’t help). There was even a really pathetic and unnecessary subplot involving Hanna and her lover, some architect called Martin Bauer. Still, there is no doubt that Beethoven was a fascinating character, some kind of rock star of the classical music, and Ed Harris delivered here another strong performance. Eventually, the best scene was when the guy got to play for the first time his Ninth Symphony. Seriously, it gave me some major goosebumps so they definitely nailed it. It was such a historical moment regarding classical music but even music in general and to think that, at the time, Beethoven was actually deaf is just so mind-blowing. Unfortunately, after this amazing climax, the whole thing felt rather flat and the only thing left was to wait until Beethoven passed away at only 56 years old. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you are interested in Beethoven’s work.