Great music; just don't expect to be intellectually challenged

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2008)

I suppose the intellectual arguments should challenge us more but then what's there to argue about it. Mozart may or may not have behaved like a spoiled child, like an irresponsible rock star of his time, but there is no disputing his genius. Salieri may have fussed and fretted and been pathologically jealous of the younger man but little good it did him, (or us, who must listen to him ranting on for close on three hours). Still, this is a sumptuous, if overlong, entertainment, visually gorgeous and sonically superb. There is a lot of music, and what music, but it is never performed in a manner so po-faced as to put off a mas cinema-going audience. (It didn't; the film was a huge success and won several Oscars including Best Picture). F Murray Abraham is a suitably reptilian Salieri although he hardly deserved the Oscar for Best Actor and Tom Hulce is a likeably gauche Mozart. Just don't expect anything too deep.