This movie has the right pompous tone to sustain Gary Oldman's inspired but gimmicky performance as Beethoven, and it also has the perfect feeling of arrogance as being a truly "dramatic" story. Sadly, the story is sloppily told and relies too much on its inherent drama to develop interest instead of developing its characters. The only character with any real development is Beethoven - the rest of the cast is terribly misused and marginalized. Krabbe's character could have been interesting - but was relegated to milquetoast for the purposes of the story. He's not a bad actor, but the portrayal is so flat that you have to blame the director for not giving him any direction. I could say much the same thing for anyone not named Oldman.
There are some nice touches, few of which have anything to do with the rest of the movie - like Bonaparte's assault on Vienna or the late No. 9 scene (which could be a nice piece by itself, but somehow ended up in this movie).
The movie starts out well enough and manages to be interesting up until the pianoforte scene. After this, however, the story is drained of all tension and interest. I love Isabella Rossellini, so her scenes have her redeeming features, but her character is just a cheat device to tell Beethoven's life story without actually having to make it into a story.
There are some real dead spots and most of them come in the second half. Curiously, this is where many of the best scenes are, which can only lead me to believe that much of the movie was inexpertly sculpted around a few key moments and it was hoped that these would be enough. They aren't.
There are some nice touches, few of which have anything to do with the rest of the movie - like Bonaparte's assault on Vienna or the late No. 9 scene (which could be a nice piece by itself, but somehow ended up in this movie).
The movie starts out well enough and manages to be interesting up until the pianoforte scene. After this, however, the story is drained of all tension and interest. I love Isabella Rossellini, so her scenes have her redeeming features, but her character is just a cheat device to tell Beethoven's life story without actually having to make it into a story.
There are some real dead spots and most of them come in the second half. Curiously, this is where many of the best scenes are, which can only lead me to believe that much of the movie was inexpertly sculpted around a few key moments and it was hoped that these would be enough. They aren't.