A Late Quartet follows the lives of a world renowned quartet coming off their off season break and gearing up for another season of concerts. However, upon hearing bad news, one of them makes the difficult choice of sacrificing his passion for the good of the group and himself, which opens up the floodgates of problems that start forming throughout the group.
The film stars Christopher Walken, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Greener, Mark Ivanir & Imogen Poots.
The film opens with Peter (Walken) teaching a class of hopeful musicians, giving them a wonderful story about a quartet and why they work so well. We then skip to them meeting up for the first time during their off season. We learn that Peter has endured a difficult year following his wife passing away and he thanks the group for their help during his difficult time. They’re obviously close friends. They begin to play but Peter struggles and puts it down to rustiness. As he goes to the doctors to get himself checked out he discovers he’s in the early stages of Parkinson’s disease. He doesn’t hold back from telling the group, revealing it to them in their next meeting, which changes everything. As the groups dynamic is threatened with change so are their personal lives. Hoffman’s character, Robert, decides he wants to play 1st Violin but Daniels (Mark Ivanir) stubbornness and strict routine won’t allow him to even consider such a possibility. Robert is insulted, hurt and his ego dented, straining their long friendship.
The group further struggles with the marital issues Robert and Catherine Greener’s character, Juliette, have been having. The stress of Peter being diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson’s disease and the new formed rivalry between Robert and Daniel puts an added strain on the marriage as Robert wants to know where Juliette’s loyalties lie. All of this is has to be dealt with while they deal with their very talented, but very angry daughter Alexandra (Poots) and her resentment of her parents for leaving her alone so much of the time when she was a child. Peter has to deal with the fact that his whole life’s passion is coming to an end, while still on the back of dealing with the loss of his wife. The groups at breaking point, a string about to snap and the event of Peter announcing his retirement is the catalyst.
It’s about family and friendship, the trials and tribunals that go along with that. It’s about loss and accepting that loss. Everyone loses something along the way in the film and they have to grow and adapt to support their loss. Christopher Walken has a great speech right at the beginning of the film about adapting when one of the quartet is out of key. It’s a symbolic message and a sign of things to come as each one of them makes mistakes and the entire quartet have to move together to try and resolve their issues, as they’re a unit, a family and one problem effects the whole group.
As a first time feature director, Yaron Zilberman does a good job with his debut with then only criticism being that the ending, SOPILER getting to their final concert may have been a little rushed, but the subtle resolution makes up for it END EPOILER. All the cast perform fantastically but it’s Hoffman and Poots who just about edge out a better performance than the rest, especially Imogen Poots who is quickly making a name for herself in the industry.
Rating: A quieter film that you’d expect tackling the issue of Parkinson’s but still very enjoyable. (5.8/10)
A Late Quartet, directed by Yaron Zilberman is available on DVD now (in America) and is released into UK cinemas on the 5th April
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