Copying Beethoven
Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) | Release Date: November 10, 2006 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
59
METASCORE
Mixed or average reviews based on 20 Critic Reviews
Positive:
9
Mixed:
9
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
80
SalonAndrew O'Hehir
Copying Beethoven has an ace up its sleeve: the wonder and drama of the Ninth Symphony itself (heard here in Bernard Haitink's tremendous 1996 recording with the Royal Concertgebouw). Read full review
80
The New York TimesManohla Dargis
Topped with that messy salt-and-pepper wig that frames and obscures his scowling, searching face, [Harris] invests Beethoven with a violent turbulence that sometimes floods the room but mostly stays coiled inside, where it seethes. Read full review
80
Washington PostStephen Hunter
The movie is completely beguiling, and it delivers joy, the beautiful spark of the gods. Read full review
75
Chicago TribuneMichael Wilmington
Copying Beethoven, at its best, is a sort of grand cinema opera of the composer's life and music. Read full review
75
Seattle Post-IntelligencerWilliam Arnold
Has one knockout sequence: the deaf maestro conducting his Ninth Symphony as Anna coaches from the wings. It goes on for what seems a whole reel, but it's so sublime it seems too short and, by itself, could stand as one of the greatest classic music videos ever. Read full review
70
Chicago ReaderJonathan Rosenbaum
Agnieszka Holland (Europa Europa, The Secret Garden) directs with obvious feeling rather than cynicism, and I was swept away by it despite the story's anachronisms. Read full review
63
ReelViewsJames Berardinelli
This is one of those middle-of-the-road art pictures that will impress some music lovers and attract a small audience, but won't really excite anyone. Copying Beethoven does not do for its title composer what Amadeus did for Mozart, and that's a shame. Read full review
63
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
There are two reasons to see - and hear - Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven. One is Ed Harris' performance as the nearly deaf and totally egocentric Ludwig van; the other is a cherry-picked 10-minute chunk of the composer's soaring Ninth Symphony. Read full review
63
Boston GlobeWesley Morris
Like an old college wrestler, Harris saunters through this toasty little piece of biographical fiction in love with the part's fixins'. Read full review
60
Village VoiceLuke Y. Thompson
Screenwriters Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson, best known for the two ponderous biopics "Ali" and "Nixon," deliver a film awkwardly composed. Read full review
60
Los Angeles TimesCarina Chocano
Shot by Ashley Rowe to look like a cross between a Vermeer retrospective and a music video, Copying Beethoven is silly and misguided, if reasonably entertaining for its charming lack of self-awareness, its weakness for lines like "Loneliness is my religion!" and its transcendently beautiful music. Read full review
60
The New RepublicStanley Kauffmann
We are left finally with a double response: it is hard to know exactly why the film was made, what its emotional and thematic point is, yet we are glad it happened because of Harris's performance. Read full review
50
The Hollywood ReporterMichael Rechtshaffen
The picture never successfully comes off the written page. Read full review
50
VarietyLeslie Felperin
Helmer Agnieszka Holland's Copying Beethoven joins 1994's "Immortal Beloved" in the ranks of mediocre dramatic interpretations of Beethoven's biography. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyJames C. Taylor
One is left yearning for the overheated melodrama of Bernard Rose's 1994 Beethoven biopic, "Immortal Beloved," which was trashy, but fun. Read full review
50
The A.V. ClubNathan Rabin
Aspires to the sublime, but it stalls at the merely ridiculous. Read full review
50
TV Guide MagazineMaitland McDonagh
More music and less melodrama would serve audiences better. Read full review
50
San Francisco ChronicleRuthe Stein
Harris' impressive channeling of Ludwig is diluted by the decision of screenwriters Stephen Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson to put the copyist front and center, possibly to distinguish their feature from "Immortal Beloved." Read full review
38
New York PostLou Lumenick
Harris can be a brilliant actor, and there are flashes of that here. But he's done in by a script that lacks any subtlety. Read full review
33
Entertainment WeeklyLisa Schwarzbaum
Holland's empurpled bio-fantasy is hooey with an anachronistic feminist slant from start to finish. Read full review
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