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A great soundtrack is drowned out by a lot of tedious harping on between Diane Kruger and Ed Harris in Copying Beethoven. She is Anna Holtz, a strong-willed student of composition who'll put up with any amount of bad behaviour just to sit at the feet of "the maestro" Ludwig van Beethoven. Unfortunately for director Agnieszka Holland, a flimsy script means this war of attrition - and yes, the gradual flowering of platonic love - quickly begins to wear thin.

Holtz is a fictional character, hazy as the ether she was pulled from. Being an ardent fan of Beethoven, she offers to transcribe his music and occasionally throws in a little flourish of her own. Naturally this doesn't sit too well with the maestro, and the clash is intensified because she is accustomed to the hushed halls of a convent and he insists on stomping around his apartment blaspheming, boozing and baring his buttocks. Holtz's tight-lipped perseverance just doesn't resonate because we have no sense of why music means so much to her.

"LACKS THAT TOUCH OF INSPIRATION"

Meanwhile, Beethoven struggles with the loss of his hearing, but there are few moments of quiet introspection for Harris. He insists that greatness lies in "the silence between the notes" and plays the obnoxious genius at full volume for almost the entire duration. At least writers Stephen J Rivele and Christopher Wilkinson give him a few witty retorts, and there is one memorable, very long-running scene that nicely illustrates the growing intimacy between Holtz and Beethoven. Together they conduct an orchestra in a performance of the Ninth Symphony (perhaps Beethoven's most rousing number) and as limbs flail and sweat streams, their affection for each other is clear. It's just a shame the rest of the film lacks that touch of inspiration, and ultimately fails to strike a chord.

Copying Beethoven is out in the UK on 17th August 2007.