I liked the movie as it dealt with Beethoven but I think that Ed Harris was wrong for the role of the composer. Despite being an English language film I think casting an American as a German is wrong. However, the scene featuring the Ninth Symphony premiere was magnificent.

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 !!!!

First of all,I am musician and have studied countless hours of form, harmony and structure. This film captures all of that from beginning to end.Of course this is a fictional film filled with many ideas but the 'story' is found behind the music. I think choosing a woman to copy his music is simply a superb move by the creators of this film. I strongly believe Beethoven although deaf had help from an Angel, an Immortal Beloved who reflected his thoughts and his feelings back to him through his music.Ed Harris is exceptional. At times I am sure the old Maestro had taken over Ed Harris's body. Very, very believable and the way he handle the 'musician' side of things was outstanding.As you can see, this film touched me. The message from Beethoven is brought to us after the performance of the ninth (during the film.) The bridge that is destroyed, how many times have we had our dreams destroyed only for us to bounce back more powerfully? How many times have we had our composition destroyed by critics only for us to learn to write from the heart more? The world doesn't need another Beethoven, it needs your music, your pictures, your words, you find it in the silence.This film cannot be watched with only your eyes but felt through your soul. If you love Beethoven music, if you have looked for answers to the questions in his music, this film is for you.