Review of A Late Quartet (2012) by Manny C — 11 Feb 2013

A Late Quartet is filled to the brim with notes of wondrous grace. It is a small gem that burrows into your heart and mind with the dazzling power of music, not to mention its top-notch performances. There's a major crisis facing New York-based chamber quartet The Fugue as they are heading into their 26th year together. Cellist Peter Mitchell (an outstanding Christopher Walken) has been diagnosed with Parkinson's. His colleagues offer their support and sympathy. First violinist Daniel Lerner (Mark Ivanir) feels Peter should continue playing while he still can, while second violinist Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman) reveals his desire to play first chair, a goal that shocks and appalls his violinist wife, Juliette (Catherine Keener), who has long looked at Peter as a mentor. When Juliette becomes aware that Robert has cheated on her and that Daniel is sleeping with their student daughter, Alexandra (Imogen Poots), festering tensions boil to the surface.

It may sound a bit soap-opera contrived, and sometimes it does get a bit too off the rails in melodrama, but director Yaron Zilberman and co-screenwriter Seth Grossman fine tune their film with all the skill and care of a quartet. Like the chamber music featured in the film, solos are a rarity. Loyal partnerships are what's required among the players, and the actors meet that challenge head on. It's riveting to watch The Fugue rehearse Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp Minor, a piece the composer insists must be played without pause or delay, and see a once tight-knit family fall apart. It's a bonus that the music, played by the Brentano String Quartet, is also a thing of beauty.

This quartet of actors are more than a pleasure to watch as well, all of whom learned to play small phrases on their instruments. It's the music they make without their instruments that burns in the memory. Hoffman and Keener, co-stars in Capote, play off one another like any skilled artists, exuding raw intensity between them. Ivanir is just as vital as the spark that ignites the two against each other. The best is Walken (on a roll from Seven Psychopaths to Stand Up Guys), in one of his most heartfelt and outstanding performances, full of subtlety and nuance. It's a joy to watch him take on his cello, hands trembling, his once cool assurance slipping away from him. It's a reminder this Oscar-winner is still one of the best, and shows it in this terrific, heartbreaking performance.