When I reviewed A Royal Affair last year, I spoke about the two big challenges that any period or costume drama has to overcome. Sure, a wonderful soundtrack and Abraham's performance are impressive, but it's not enough to get this to a positive review for me. As does the over-the-top performance from Hulce. The made up story has its fascinating moments, but it gets old after a while. I may be in the minority here, but to me, a film must do more than just sound great, it has to move me emotionally in one way or another. Putting character dialogue aside, merely listening to this film is a joy. Surely, most of the tunes are genius-ly written by the original composers, but the overall sound quality and editing is brilliant. It's also worth noting that his character isn't all that likable on paper, but he brings the grounded humanity, especially in his jealousy for Mozart, that's missing from the rest of the film.Īnother thing Amadeus has going for it is the glorious music used and conducted for the film. Covering decades, Abraham brings a totally different vibe to both the old and younger versions of Salieri, and both work extremely well. What didn't bother me, however, was the performance of F. Normally, I don't mind such a choice in storytelling, but it seemed to bother me this time around.

As far as we know, most of the events of the film are highly fictionalized or exaggerated. These events are told in flashbacks by Salieri as he was recently committed to an Insane Asylum after attempted suicide. Of course, Amadeus isn't strictly about Mozart himself, it deals with his 'rivalry' with Italian composer, Antonio Salieri and the various trials and tribulations of Mozart's wish to display his talents to the world and particularly, the Roman Emperor. I understand a film about grand-scale music and opera's needs to have a unique identity, but I found Tom Hulce's eccentric title role-performance to lack the human touch. It also comes from the great director behind One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, Miles Forman. Winning 8 Oscars in 1985 and numerous other accolades, it's safe to say Amadeus is one of the more beloved films of the 80's. But I never really connected to the characters, and that's where it fails for me. With all its colorful and dazzling visual and audio flare, Amadeus is one for the ages.

Amadeus imdb