A Late Quartet - Movie Review

Rating: 3 out of 5

While this film has some bracingly strong observations on the nature of long-term professional and personal relationships, it also feels somewhat theatrical in the way its story develops. It's as if everything happens for an important reason, as ordained by the screenwriters. Fortunately, these terrific actors bring out riveting layers of meaning in their characters.

The title refers to the Fugue String Quartet, which has been at the peak of the classical music scene for 25 years. But their fragile balance is shaken when cellist Peter (Walken) is diagnosed with Parkinson's. Second violinist Robert (Hoffman) starts wondering if maybe he should be playing first chair, but he's feeling unsupported by his wife Juliette (Keener), who plays viola. Meanwhile, first violinist Daniel (Ivanir) wants to keep things as they are, although his lessons with Robert and Juliette's prodigy daughter Alex (Poots) are taking an unexpected turn into something steamy. Can the quartet's bond survive all of this?

All four actors underplay their roles perfectly, letting us see the internal workings of their relationships through their own private ambitions. Hoffman, Keener and Ivanir have especially dark edges to play with in every scene, even if their long-repressed issues make the film sometimes feel soapy. Walken is simply wonderful in a rare non-kooky role as a man facing a very difficult future with humour and emotion. On the other hand, Poots kind of gets lost in the shuffle, never really making much of her thinly written role.

Filmmaker Zilberman keeps the focus personal, which makes this four-way relational crisis fascinating to watch, especially as long-buried resentments gurgle to the surface and demand attention for the first time in a quarter-century. Although it's a bit hard to believe that these four musical geniuses would have suppressed their frustrations for so long. And we never really believe that these actors are playing the instruments either (by contrast, real musician Nina Lee's brief appearance as Peter's replacement shows how it's really done). But even with these nagging contrivances, it's a watchable, intriguing drama.

Rich Cline

Facts and Figures

Year: 2012

Genre: Dramas

Run time: 105 mins

In Theaters: Friday 23rd November 2012

Box Office USA: $1.6M

Distributed by: Entertainment One

Reviews

Contactmusic.com: 3 / 5

Rotten Tomatoes: 78%
Fresh: 84 Rotten: 24

IMDB: 7.1 / 10

Cast & Crew

Director: Yaron Zilberman

Producer: Vanessa Coifman, David Faigenblum, Emanuel Michael, Tamar Sela, Mandy Tagger, Yaron Zilberman

Screenwriter: Seth Grossman, Yaron Zilberman

Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman as Robert, Christopher Walken as Peter Mitchell, Imogen Poots as Alexandra Gelbart, Catherine Keener as Juliette Gelbart, Wallace Shawn as Gideon Rosen, Mark Ivanir as Daniel Lerner, Madhur Jaffrey as Dr. Nadir, Liraz Charhi as Pilar, Megan McQuillan as Brenda, Pamela Quinn as Parkinson's Class Instructor, Brooklyn Parkinson Group as Parkinson's Class Participants, Cristian Puig as Flamenco Guitarist, Rebeca Tomas as Flamenco Dancer