Review of A Late Quartet (2012) by Mike C — 07 Jun 2013

Nice flick. Some great characters and maybe acting offset by a little pretentiousness (aren't all things orchestral a little pretentious?) and some over-dramatic stuff. Other than that, nice moving flick with some great subplots.

Hoffman is typically great and is once again good in this. He seems to do best in lesser budget movies where plays some type of artist. I thought Ivanir kinda stole the show. I really wanted to see Rust and Bone and was disappointed with the male lead in the movie. I think I wanted him to be more like Ivanir's Daniel character in this. Maybe an asshole, maybe a genius. But definitely sophisticated and knows how to do things. Walken is good and delivered a particularly good last bit. Poots is quite striking and does okay...off and on. Keener is always a weak link and again carries that burden in this movie. Just flat.

It's a bit unfair of the writers to put two particular scenes back to back: in one, Hoffman and Ivanir have a discussion in Hoffman's hotel room. Brilliant. That is followed in short order by Poots vs. Keener in their dramatic crescendo. Not so brilliant. Regardless, somehow the characters mostly worked together and their storylines meshed well and made for some decent drama.

A surprisingly moving end. I guess by that late in the movie I was not expecting to be moved. I cannot testify as to the accuracy of their playing, but I'm glad I cannot. I was able to focus on the story instead of something else.