Diane Kruger holds her own with a lovely, spirited portrayal of the 23-year-old copyist whom he first rejects because she is a woman, but who convinces him of her ability and becomes an important aide to help him resolve the pressures and difficulties toward the end of his life. Director Agnieska Holland has created a convincing world in which emotions are intensely played out, as has the screenplay by Stephen J. Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson. Hungary was used as a stand-in for Vienna.

The copyist is a figment of fictional imagination, although Beethoven was known to have two male copyists. But it is a wonderful conceit, as it affords the opportunity for building a provocative relationship while covering such bases as the difficulties women had if bent on a music career and Beethoven’s struggle with his deafness and with the tone deafness his aristocratic admirers could have toward efforts to be adventurous with his music.

Unlike many films about notables in the arts, this is one in which the protagonist is already famous, not a struggling genius who would not be hailed until after his death. There is a tender scene in which an elderly woman is living in uncomfortable surroundings but happy to be there because she can hear the great music coming from the quarters of the master.

Matthew Goode plays Martin Bauer, an ambitious young architect and suitor of Anna, who gravitates toward Beethoven’s world against his wishes, a situation compounded by a particular act of cruelty the composer inflicts on him. Joe Anderson is effective in the role of Karl, Beethoven’s nephew who resists being pressured by his uncle into a music career and desperately needs money to square his gambling debts.