Ed Harris plays
Beethoven, but, with this material, maybe the producers should have
turned to
Ben Stiller.
Diane Kruger
stars as Anna – a female musical composition student in 1824 Vienna,
when women are not considered to be
good enough for the business. Ludwig
van
Beethoven (Harris), who has not had a major, important piece of work
for
several years, desperately is trying to finish his latest masterpiece,
which
some fear may be a big stinker. With
only four days to go, Anna, who is the best student, has been brought
in to
help finish copying all of the various pieces of sheet music.
Will Beethoven
work with a woman? Can
they get the job
done in time?
While some might
say it is a breath of fresh air to see Beethoven as flesh and blood,
instead of
being held up as a musical deity, I can’t say I was excited
to see Beethoven as
a crude, rude jackass like he is in the fictional Copying Beethoven. Worse
yet, I was
not ready to see his naked rear end!
You
see, Copying Beethoven wants to be a randy, raunchy comedy that can
play right
along side an Adam Sandler or Rob Schneider vehicle, but still has
trouble
figuring out what it should be.
In this
tale, writers Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson start
off
focused on the task at hand – completing and performing the
new piece of work.
However, the audience is lead down a whole myriad of paths including a
look at
chauvinistic attitudes in those times, a focus on the burgeoning
relationship
between Anna and Beethoven (non-sexual, thank God), discussion of
Beethoven’s relationship
with his nephew, and many questioning if the old man, who is hard of
hearing,
still has what it takes to wow the audience.
This leads to a jumbled movie that stumbles to its
ending, after we saw
what should have been the climax (the performance of
Beethoven’s latest).
Director
Agnieszka Holland does a fine job with the visuals of flashing between
Beethoven leading the orchestra and Anna performing her role in
concert, which
comes during a very extended interlude that is thrilling for anyone who
loves
music and gets to hear it at a theater with the best possible sound
system. However,
you have to sit through potty humor jokes to get there, while Harris camps it up as the dirty
old
man, and Kruger looks ravishing, which is the extent of the acting
abilities
she has on display in Copying Beethoven (at least, she can be happy with the fact she
didn’t have to
display her rump like Harris).
1
½ Waffles (Out
Of 4)
Copying
Beethoven is rated PG-13 for some sexual
elements.
Copyright
2006 - WaffleMovies.com
