Copying Beethoven

Tonight I saw Copying Beethoven, starring Ed Harris.

It was so awful, I wrestled with getting up and leaving or merely napping in my somewhat-assigned seat at the screening. Yes, it was that brutal.

This fictional exploration of the end of Ludwig Van Beethoven's life is so absurd, it's laughable.

Diane Kruger plays Anna, a composition student brought in to rescue the deteriorating maestro and save Ode to Joy. As an actress she was fine, but as a character, I have a few problems:

A) To the best of my knowledge, the Ninth Symphony didn't need saving.
B) If it did, my bet is that the difficult composer would've fetched a more experienced musician to use as his copyist.
C) The 'naive, innocent, lives-in-a-convent' chick has been done before.

And the way Harris plays Ludwig is nothing short of insulting. He's vile, rude and so over-the-top (yes, he moons someone and makes fart jokes) that I had a hard time not turning away from the screen each time he appeared.

I realize that the real man may not have been the easiest artist to be around, but he was a genius, and I'd rather remember him for the melodies of his brilliance than his bad behavior.

Don't you dare go see this. I'd hate to have to say "I told you so."