IGN.com|AskMen.com|Rotten Tomatoes|GameSpy|FilePlanet|TeamXbox|CheatsCodesGuides|GameStats|Direct2Drive

RottenTomatoes.com

Register | Log In | What is RT?
It's our 10th birthday, so you get presents!
Home Movies DVD Celebrities News Critics Trailers & Pictures The Vine Forums
Box Office | Best Of | Certified Fresh | Showtimes
RT Search Powered by Google
 
MOVIES / ON DVD / COPYING BEETHOVEN
Copying Beethoven

Rate This Movie

Write a Review
See Pictures
Share This Movie
Add to List
Buy Poster

Bookmark and Share

Copying Beethoven (2006)

26%
9%
51%
N/A
N/A
N/A
26 %
Reviews Counted: 76 Fresh: 20  Rotten:56 Average Rating: 4.7/10
 
Consensus: A pretentious historical drama that's ultimately a drag, despite Ed Harris' powerful performance.
 

How does the Tomatometer work?

The Tomatometer measures the percentage of positive reviews from Approved Tomatometer Critics for a certain movie.[-]

Rated: 12A

Runtime: 1 hr 44 mins

Theatrical Release: 17-08-2007

Synopsis: Classical music aficionado or no, it's tough not to be moved by the soaring notes of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The work stands as both a defining highpoint in the composer's career and a dynamic and beguiling legacy of its era. An imaginative exploration of Beethoven's life in his... Classical music aficionado or no, it's tough not to be moved by the soaring notes of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. The work stands as both a defining highpoint in the composer's career and a dynamic and beguiling legacy of its era. An imaginative exploration of Beethoven's life in his final days working on the Ninth, Copying Beethoven draws inspiration from the music itself. Directed by acclaimed filmmaker Agnieszka Holland, the film is both thrilling and romantic. It is 1824. The composer, played brilliantly by Ed Harris, is racing to finish his new symphony. However, it has been years since his last success and he is plagued by deafness, loneliness and personal trauma. A copyist is urgently needed to help the composer finish in time for the scheduled first performance - otherwise the orchestra will have no music to play. Insightful young conservatory student and aspiring composer Anna Holtz (Diane Kruger) is recommended for the position. The mercurial Beethoven is skeptical that a woman might become involved in his masterpiece but slowly comes to trust in Anna's assistance and in the end becomes quite fond of her. By the time the piece is performed - a moment in history captured in an exquisitely moving shot from Anna's perspective, as she sits on the orchestra floor helping the deaf Beethoven to keep time - her presence in his life is an absolute necessity. Her deep understanding of his work is such that she even corrects mistakes he has made, while her passionate personality opens a door into his proud, private world. Harris is no stranger to bringing iconic, larger-than-life figures to the screen; his lead performance in Pollock was a masterful exploration of a tormented but talented artist. He channels a similar esprit here: his Beethoven is ribald and volatile, vulnerable and, ultimately, endearing. He is matched in intensity and skill by Kruger, who makes the young Anna both an enraptured apprentice and a paragon of willful female independence and ambition. These two characters break down barrier after barrier, and the result is a harmonious wonder. --© SKE Films [More]

Genre: Dramas

Starring: Ed Harris, Diane Kruger, Matthew Goode, Phyllida Law, Nicholas Jones

Director: Agnieszka Holland
Screenwriter: Christopher Wilkinson, Stephen J. Rivele

DVD Info

Release:

Mar 4, 2007

[DVD Details]

DVD Features:

  • Keep Case
  • Widescreen - 2.35

Audio:

  • Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround - English
  • Dolby Surround 2.0 - French, Spanish
  • Subtitled - English, Spanish

Additional Release Material:

  • Alternate Scenes - Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary
  • Audio Commentary - Agnieszka Holland - Director; Ed Harris - Actor
  • Behind the Scenes - "The Making of COPYING BEETHOVEN"

Reviews

 
T-Meter Critics
 
 
Top Critics
 
 
RT Community
 
 
My Critics
 
 
My Friends
 
 
DVD
 
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
Arrange By: Name | Fresh | Rotten | Date | Source
 
 
Ratings Image
3/5

You can mock this film if you like, but it remains watchable throughout. And the ears have it when the eyes don't.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Derek Malcolm
This is London
Ratings Image
2/5

As wooden as a piano stool.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Neil Smith
thelondonpaper
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
1/5

If the composer's shade could hear the words this script has put in his mouth it really would be a case of "roll over, Beethoven", right there in his grave.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Anthony Quinn
Independent
Ratings Image
N/A

A great example of that time-honoured genre, the biopic so silly it plays like a spoof.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Tim Robey
Daily Telegraph
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
N/A

Amateurishly written, scarcely acted tosh.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Martin Hoyle
Financial Times
Ratings Image
1/5

A fatuous, bafflingly imagined tale of the unhappy and unwell Beethoven and his ordeal in preparing the Ninth Symphony for its premiere.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/5

Diane Kruger is the most appealing scenery in this rose-tinted nonsense.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
James Christopher
Times [UK]
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/5

No amount of grandstanding from Harris can animate this turgid mishmash of musical biopic and May-December romance.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Neil Smith
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
1/5

Boring and pointless.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Christopher Tookey
Daily Mail [UK]
Ratings Image
2/5

Like the wrinkled buttocks he flashes at Kruger, however, this portrait of the artist could use some tightening up.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Neil Smith
Total Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/6

The direction from Polish New Waver Agnieszka Holland feels more like she’s testing a new camera than attempting to capture the nuances of the artistic process, and if we’re to believe the script, then all great art derives ‘from the gut’.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
David Jenkins
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/5

Brief bursts of passion aside, this is a lifeless facsimile of the great artist's last days.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/17/07
Patrick Peters
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
2/5

A dull and uninspiring film, despite Harris' best efforts.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/16/07
Matthew Turner
ViewLondon
Ratings Image
2/5

A great soundtrack is drowned out by a lot of tedious harping on.

Full Review | comment Comment
08/14/07
Stella Papamichael
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
Ratings Image
3/5

While much of this film is intriguing and nicely performed, it also feels rather strained and corny.

Full Review | comment Comment
05/31/07
Rich Cline
Shadows on the Wall
Ratings Image
N/A

Does the portrayal stray dangerously close to parody at times? Of course.

Full Review | comment Comment
07/19/07
Luke Y. Thompson
LYTRules.com
Ratings Image
4/5

Enough to keep the interest going -- and one sequence that raises the film to a level many better films never dream of attaining.

Full Review | comment Comment
06/20/07
Ken Hanke
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC)
Ratings Image
N/A

Beethoven turns out to be like every obnoxious self-absorbed creative type you've ever met

Full Review | comment Comment
06/13/07
Luke Y. Thompson
Village Voice
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review | comment Comment
04/28/07
Sydney Morning Herald
Ratings Image
2.5/5

An overblown piece of biopic fantasy.

Full Review | comment Comment
04/16/07
David Cornelius
DVDTalk.com
1 - 20 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 >> >|
See More Topics...

Related Forums

copying beethoven -copies amadeus
by: critiqualeye 11/20/07


REEL_REVIEWER
(2006)-Agnieszka Holland's COPYING BEETHOVEN is still making music despite crix pans?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 11/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
(2006)-Agnieszka Holland's COPYING BEETHOVEN is still making music despite crix pans?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 11/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
(2006)-Agnieszka Holland's COPYING BEETHOVEN is still making music despite crix pans?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 11/23/06


REEL_REVIEWER
(2006)-Agnieszka Holland's COPYING BEETHOVEN is still making music despite crix pans?
by: REEL_REVIEWER 11/23/06
all

Pictures

See More Movie Pictures
Play All

Trailers & Clips

  • >
    Trailer
1 of 1
See More Movie Trailers and Clips
all

News

Critical Consensus: A So-So "Year", "Fiction" Works; "Babel" Shoots and Scores; "Harsh Times" Lives Up To Its Title; Guess "Return"'s Tomatometer!
posted by Tim Ryan November 09, 2006
This week at the movies, we ve got a rom-com in Provence ("A Good Year," starring Russell Crowe), a guy whose...

Around the Network

• Copying Beethoven at Rotten Tomatoes
• Copying Beethoven at IGN
About| Site Map| Help| RT To Go| Contact Us| Critics Submission| Linking to RT| Licensing| Movie List| Celebs List| Newsletter

IGN.com | GameSpy | Comrade | Arena | FilePlanet | ModCenter | GameSpy Technology
TeamXbox | Planets | Vaults | VE3D | CheatsCodesGuides | GameStats | GamerMetrics
AskMen.com | Rotten Tomatoes | Direct2Drive


By continuing past this page, and by the continued use of this site, you agree to be bound by and abide by the User Agreement.
Copyright 1998-2008, IGN Entertainment, Inc. About IGN | Support | Advertise | Privacy Policy | User Agreement | Subscribe to RT's XML feed! IGN RSS Feeds
IGN's enterprise databases running Oracle, SQL and MySQL are professionally monitored and managed by Pythian Remote DBA
Certain product data ©1995-present Muze, Inc. For personal use only. All rights reserved.