Amadeus

The music, the sets, the costumes—all gorgeous—but pallid imitation fails as sincere flattery in this overstuffed, five-part streaming version of a Tony winning play and Oscar-winning movie.

There are good results here, and some less than good. One might say it is less than the sum of its parts; if in the end I was not moved in the way I was surely meant to be — the five-part series is a little repetitious, a little exhausting — there was much to like along the way. It did prove interesting.

This Mozart is more of a straightforward working artist, alcoholic and skirt chaser. This makes for a Mozart who is more rueful and sympathetic but not much more interesting, and Sharpe gives a somewhat dutiful performance. .... The revisions have one happy result: Barton’s Salieri is a more nuanced and interesting character, with motivations more grounded in everyday life. Bettany takes full advantage in his meticulously controlled performance; we can feel the rot eating him from within. .... The question his [Joe Barton's] “Amadeus” raises is, why “Amadeus”?

There's plenty to enjoy for viewers willing to embrace its theatricality and historical aversion, but those expecting a more nuanced or historically grounded exploration of Mozart will be left wanting more.

Bettany as Salieri does well with a script that offers him no chance to compete with F Murray Abraham’s Oscar-winning performance. Sharpe as Mozart is, likewise, hampered, but even controlling for the script’s banality, his performance is a thin, half-hearted thing.