Tom Hulce is at his most persuasive when he lets a character be awkward company. His Mozart gives Amadeus much of its unruly pleasure, though the repeated childishness can make even this performance wearing.
Fi1m perspective
The laugh in Amadeus (1984) is not something we would want to hear across a dinner table. Hulce's Mozart is gauche, immature and quite capable of exhausting the people around him. We felt a welcome relief at his bad manners: a film about a great composer was allowing him to be a nuisance. Miloš Forman gets something valuable from this willingness to be disliked, giving F. Murray Abraham's Salieri ample reason to resent the man while the music makes that resentment look small.
The early film roles included Larry 'Pinto' Kroger in Animal House (1978), before Mozart gave Hulce his screen breakthrough. He followed it with Dominick Luciano in Dominick and Eugene (1988) and Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989). By the mid-1990s, his attention was moving towards stage producing and directing. He voiced Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), with occasional small film roles continuing after the change of direction.
In Amadeus, the performance works because Forman lets it affect the acting around it. Hulce gives Abraham something concrete to react to, and Elizabeth Berridge's Constanze brings a welcome directness beside the two men. The writing gives her less space to develop, which is a pity when Mozart's childishness begins to repeat itself. Forman and Shaffer press that behaviour too hard, and Hulce can become wearing once the first surprise has passed. We would not want him made more respectable; we would welcome fewer reminders of how badly he behaves.
Hulce later appears as Dr. Cayly in Stranger Than Fiction (2006), a film we recommend for Will Ferrell's restraint and his warmth with Maggie Gyllenhaal. Its literary cleverness gets fussy, and the answers arrive too tidily. For a fuller sense of what Hulce can do, start with Amadeus and allow for a little irritation. Set aside an uninterrupted evening and keep the volume up for the music.
Biography
Tom Hulce is an American actor and theatre producer. He was born on 6 December 1953 in Detroit, Michigan, and trained at the Interlochen Arts Academy, Beloit College and the North Carolina School of the Arts.
He is known for his performances as Larry 'Pinto' Kroger in Animal House (1978), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in Amadeus (1984), Larry Buckman in Parenthood (1989), and the voice of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996). He also appeared as Dr. Cayly in Stranger Than Fiction (2006) and Mr. Bowker in Jumper (2008).
Hulce received an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Amadeus. He won an Emmy Award for The Heidi Chronicles and, as a lead producer, a Tony Award for Best Musical for Spring Awakening (2007). He largely retired from acting in the mid-1990s to concentrate on stage producing and directing.
