This is all fiction and an experiment, but not bad at all as such. The direction of Agnieszka Holland is admirable as always, her films are always more than interesting, and her challenge here is more out of the ordinary than ever. Ed Harris has been generally lauded extensively for his virtuoso acting throughout, and he deserves all praise, but so does Diane Kruger as the copyist. The concept of the film is bold indeed, inventing an impossible female copyist for the completely deaf Beethoven, and most of the film, just like in "Immortal Beloved", is a complete fake, but it makes a good film and a good enough complement to "Immortal Beloved". That film was completely convincing in all its fantastic speculations, while this is not: it's just not possible that Beethoven could have had a female copyist. So the whole film is based on an impossible concept, but it's a film, not a documentary or biopic or in any way a true story (except for the Karl bit), and on the screen anything is allowed. Joe Anderson as Karl is another asset, just like Jean-Louis Barrault in Abel Gance's monstrous failure of a Beethoven film, and Oscar Werner in the only perfectly good Beethoven film - a very interesting character as the one true victim of the tragedy of Beethoven and as such a success in every Beethoven film. Unfortunately, the weak point of the film is Ed Harris, who has got Beethoven wrong, no matter how much he tries to make the best of it, almost desperately over-acting his effort to reach the truth, which he never does. It's great acting, but it's not Beethoven. As I said in my review of the Austrian Beethoven film "Eroica" of 1949 - Ed Harris in all his virtuoso acting is but a shadow to the definite Beethoven of Ewald Balser.Nevertheless, it's a great film and a very interesting thought experiment. The highlight is of course the actual first performance of the 9th, in which the film gets closest to the truth - that's about exactly how it was performed - but for the female assistant.

I feel cheated as well as betrayed after watching "Copying Beethoven" as i had great expectations from this flick especially after watching "AMADEUS",a movie based on Mozart. I was really excited before seeing this movie as for me it was more of a battle between the two great musicians,Mozart and Beethoven. I had thoroughly enjoyed "AMADEUS" as it has been superbly made and the characters of Mozart and Saleri have been executed with sheer brilliance. However,in this flick there is no life to the portrayal of Beethoven and the movie was completely pivoted around his female Copyist which according o me made no sense at all and made the movie boring. Acting wise the movie is good but factually as well as emotionally the movie is completely unreal as i never felt any sympathy for neither Beethoven nor her Copyist. What was the need of creating all the hype about the female copyist when you already have a mind-blowing plot of Beethoven's later life struggle. The only good elements in the movie are the philosophical aspects of Beethoven,his dialogs full of substance and the heavenly music but again if u compare it with the way it has been shown in "AMADEUS", you will feel for yourself that its a no match to the completely power-packed,entertaining,gripping and soulful AMADEUS !!!!

I love Beethoven, and while Copying Beethoven is far from bad, it didn't completely work for me. The music is superb, Diane Kruger is strong as Anna, the cinematography, editing and scenery are sumptuous and Ed Harris is a brilliant Beethoven playing him as witty, cruel and tormented, plus Agnieszka Holland directs well.To a lesser extent, I did like the Ninth Symphony scene, and thought it was one of Copying Beethoven's better scenes, but if I hadn't seen the scene from Immortal Beloved featuring that piece of music first which was much more poignant it would have had more of an impact on me. I know people are upset that Copying Beethoven is mostly fictional and it is, but that didn't bother me as such though they could have elaborated on Beethoven's deafness and the wash me scene more. It was the script and story structure that bothered me as well as the pacing. The script for me was stilted and was very anachronistic, so much so the dialogue does jar and becomes distracting. The film does have a somewhat convoluted story structure too with one too many disconnected scenes, while the film plods badly especially in the last act and the fictional character of the copyist is dull and uninteresting.All in all, it is not awful but sorry I wasn't particularly enthused. 5/10 Bethany Cox

The fascination we have with Mozart and Beethoven endure and for good reasons. Such heights of musical genius are more fully appreciated, beloved and enjoyed now than in their own days. Their lives also fascinate us. Mozart, the most precocious and preternaturally blessed lad and Beethoven, the storming colossus, trail blazing iconoclast, rebel and first firmly independent artist. Sadly, both have been treated rather shabbily by writers and film makers who have strangely succumbed to myth making or ridiculous exaggerations. All the more odd is that post-Amadeus (the film) that a director and writer would take up the theme of Beethoven's last few years and in spite of a wealth of excellent recent scholarship invent a portrait that was more fabrication than history. In some ways this film is a 'theme and variation' on his life, and that's fine I suppose. I was disappointed to see another fantasy rather than a bio-pic on what the man was really like.There are hints here and there in the film, to be sure. His caustic and volcanic outbursts and overwrought mood swings. His willingness to invent brand new musical thoughts, seemingly out of the transcendent ether, not worrying a jot that no one in his time period would understand, keenly keeping his eyes on the future. In that, he was correct.While I am reminded that this film like "Amadeus" is not a biography and that it caters to those who might not know much about him, those who have more than a surface knowledge of his life will be let down and saddened by this. The actors are all excellent. I do not believe that Harris correctly portrayed Beethoven. During those last few years, he was quite sick, basically unable to hear anyone talking to him even to his face. Those who were allowed close to him had to write their words in note books (this was a foolish and glaring error on the directors part). He was often filthy, did not shave for weeks on end, smelled awful, looked worse, frightened his neighbors with all his screeching and howling while he worked on the mighty ninth. It just does not come across. Perhaps one day someone will make an honest portrait of the great man as he really was and leave all the Hollywoodish garbage where it belongs.This and the other fantasy film "Immortal Beloved" are entertaining as films go but do not do the subject matter justice.