The casting of Hulce was a problem for me.

Rating: 6/10 (13 December 2013)

I am sure that casting Tom Hulce as Mozart was a great risk, but unfortunately that was the main thing that kept me from enjoying this movie. It wasn't all Hulce's fault, since there was a decision to have him insert an exceedingly irritating cackle at pretty much random points. Whoever dreamed that up must have really liked the idea, since there is one final cackle that closes the movie after all of the end credits have run. Hulce's attempts to act as an orchestra conductor were on a par with what you would expect from some untutored middle school student, what with gesticulations that mainly just kept the beat.
Mozart was a musical genius who challenged the hidebound opinions of the times as to what was deemed acceptable. In that he is little different from early rock-and-roll stars. As presented he was a young, brash, free spirit (so at least the audience was spared the ponderous, agonized artist trope) with few endearing qualities. Granted, there seems to have been a large disparity between Mozart the person and his incredible music, but I cannot believe that he was quite the fool as what is seen here; the personality set forth was not credible to me. If only we had a time machine.
There are some good things, like a couple of good performances. F. Murry Abraham is a standout in his subtle portrayal of Antonio Salieri. In this movie Salieri is a tragic figure. He was a popular and respected musician in the court of Emperor Joseph II. Beethoven and Schubert were among his students and I think Salieri gets somewhat of a bum rap in this movie. Solieri's torture was to recognize the difference between his talents and the pure genius of Mozart causing a serious conflict between jealousy and awe. I have seen this scenario played out in the workplace and it would have worked out for the best if the inferior party had just accepted that he was out-gunned; the results were unfortunate, as with Salieri. I thought that Jeffery Jones was particularly effective as Emperor Joseph II. He could walk the fine line between haughtiness and genuine feeling with aplomb.
The staging of the opera segments is brilliant. In fact a movie with just extended opera segments, so presented, would be a treasure. As appropriate, Mozart's music plays a central role. But they never let it play for any decent length of time. Particularly irritating was the interruption of the staging of the final scene of "The marriage of Figaro" with a voice-over from Salieri. Couldn't they at least spare a few minutes to let the audience appreciate one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written? If that piece does not convince anyone of Mozart's genius, then there is no hope that that appreciation will ever be sparked. At least they had enough sense not to interrupt the Lacrimosa from Mozart's Requiem played over his burial. The brief scenes from "The Magic Flute" left me wanting more--the translation into English for those scenes was clever.
The production is lavish and a delight to watch. The film deserved its Oscar for costume design--the costumes must have been a major expense. The filming is first rate with sets and architecture that created (at least for me) a feel for what 18th century Vienna must have been like. Some scenes were filmed in an opera house where Mozart himself conducted.