A great film that is hard to watch

Rating: 10/10 (23 January 2019)

The plot of this film requires Mozart to be portrayed as boorish, annoying git. Hulce turns in a great turn doing just that. If anything he is too good at being annoying. Pretty much every time Mozart laughs you will want to stab him or your own eardrums. While that is precisely the point of the story it can make the film hard to watch in places. Fortunately the rest of the material is so compelling that you can usually overcome this issue. The film at least is great to think about.
A lot of this has to do with Salieri being such a compelling figure. Through his envy and mediocrity but also his social graces the film presents a compelling version of the problem of evil. Given Murray's tour de force the 3 hours are just utterly engrossing.
It also helps that the film is very operatic. Lush visuals, striking direction and great selection of music makes this film feel appropriately larger than life.
good film.