John

Going into this film I didn't know anything about Bernstein or his music. Having watched it, I still know nothing about his music. I guess knowledge of his work is assumed as the film expects the viewer to just know the guy was a musical genius without giving any indication of what that genius was. The scene i enjoyed the most was his conducting of Mahler in the cathedral. The cancer deterioration scenes are hard to watch and very well done. I tried to care, but found the rest of the film quite boring and pretentious. I'm sure I wouldn't have done if I had already known about him as an artist.

The vitriol and hatred this film seems to elicit from so many reviewers only makes me enjoy it even more. Ok, it may not objectively be any good, but it is funny, light hearted and the performances, while not academy award territory, are perfectly pitched for this type of film. It has somehow become a Christmas staple for my family. In summary, I love it :)