Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 1 rating
Disciplined Italian composer Antonio Salieri becomes consumed by jealousy and resentment towards the hedonistic and remarkably talented young Salzburger composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
Amadeus is a towering dramatic achievement. The plot — Salieri's tortured mediation on divine injustice, talent, and envy — is genuinely riveting and psychologically rich, earning a 4. The acting is exceptional: F. Murray Abraham's Salieri is one of cinema's great performances, and Tom Hulce's Mozart is electric and unpredictable, solidly a 4. Cinematography is lush and period-appropriate but not particularly groundbreaking — a competent, handsome 3. Novelty is very high: this is a singular film in conception, framing genius through the eyes of mediocrity, blending historical drama with dark psychological comedy and magnificent music in a wholly distinctive voice — a 4. The ending, while emotionally resonant and thematically fitting with Salieri's bitter legacy monologue, is slightly drawn out and somewhat predictable in its tragic arc — a solid 3.