"Copying Beethoven": Masterful performance, electrifying music
At the center of Agnieszka Holland's flawed but often effective character study "Copying Beethoven" is a performance of the composer's Ninth Symphony, and it's a stirring demonstration of how music can temporarily transform us, taking us to a more beautiful place. Beethoven (Ed Harris) conducts the premiere of his masterwork in 1824 Vienna, and in the warm candlelight of the theater we see him becoming invigorated by the music, letting it flow through his body like a dance. He can't entirely hear it in his head (the composer's deafness was well encroached), but he hears it in his heart, and the performance becomes a joyous thing, getting louder and louder as his exuberance grows.
It's an inspired — and inspiring — scene, and it makes up for some awkwardness elsewhere in the movie. Written by Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele, "Copying Beethoven" blends fact and fiction, not always gracefully. Opposite Beethoven is a fictitious character named Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger), a young would-be composer who comes to work as Beethoven's copyist. That Anna looks like a 19th-century supermodel makes an implausible situation even more so; that Kruger as an actor fades opposite the whirlwind that is Harris doesn't help either. And while the look of the film is elegant (Ashley Rowe's cinematography perfectly catches the slightly smudged quality of candlelight, and the rooms have a lush dustiness), the dialogue at times feels flat and obvious.
But in the same way that Annette Bening brought zing to the otherwise uneven "Running With Scissors" two weeks ago, Harris swaggers away with "Copying Beethoven." In his carelessly donned velvet jackets and untamed mane of gray hair, he gives every line a spark. His Beethoven doesn't suffer fools gladly, and enjoys telling them so (he dismisses a rival as "a frilly-shirted fifth-rate Rossini"). Always an intelligent presence on screen, Harris here embraces the challenge of showing us the man behind the wall of music; a man who believes that "musicians are as close to God as man can be." It's an enjoyable performance, just short of over-the-top — which is exactly where you'd imagine the mind behind the Ninth Symphony to be.
Moira Macdonald: 206-464-2725 or mmacdonald@seattletimes.com
"Copying Beethoven," with Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Matthew Goode, Ralph Riach, Joe Anderson, Bill Stewart. Directed by Agnieszka Holland, from a screenplay by Christopher Wilkinson and Stephen J. Rivele. 104 minutes. Rated PG-13 for some sexual elements. Metro, Meridian.