Crappy film

A Masterpiece!

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

It's always difficult watching actors pretending to play instruments. In this film the main four actors of the quartet almost pull it off. I shall ignore the pathetic attempt of the daughter. I understand that the main four were coached, and so some of the techniques were obviously well rehearsed (although, of course, we don't hear any of the genuine racket that they'd be producing). But I was absolutely amazed that none of the coaches stopped the actors from looking down their instruments and watching what their own fingers were doing. This practice just made them look awkward and childish, it being something a beginner would do in maybe the first few months of learning. After that period, your eyes are only ever on your music (or the conductor as well, if you're in an orchestra). What your fingers are doing is something that your brain is controlling totally sub-consciously. You aren't even aware of it most of the time. This spoiled the whole film for me as they all just looked ridiculous.

"A Late Quartet" sets out on a lofty premise: the human intrigue of a longstanding string quartet that vauntedly plays Beethoven's great meditation on mortality and the abyss, the Op. 131 quartet. And promptly it begins to stumble, with arid, dessicated execution pretending to be contemplative. One quartet member gets an unfortunate medical diagnosis, but in fact the diagnosis isn't nearly as bad as the producers and directors posture it as being. Meanwhile, the storyline between two quartet members who are a couple becomes soap-operatic. What I kept hoping this film would achieve is resonance between the arc of the story and the movements of the quartet, which contains some of the profoundest existential utterances by Western man. It never does. Meanwhile, I know intimately at least three dozen fine ensemble performances of the Op. 131, and while I do not expect the rendition provided in the soundtrack to be measured by them, the interpretations provided in the score don't move me. There is fine talent here, and I never don't enjoy Catherine Keener in anything, but the totality of this film cannot help but stray into being lapidary and boring.

"A Late Quartet" looks at music as a metaphor for people's lives. The subject is a group of musicians: two violinists (Mark Ivanir and Philip Seymour Hoffman), a viola player (Catherine Keener) and a cellist (Christopher Walken). When the cellist finds that he is developing Parkinson's and probably won't be able to play for much longer, a series of things begin to happen which have a profound effect on the foursome.While the movie make substantive use of classical music - Beethoven, Hayden, Bach, etc. - there's also a sense of how the music effects the characters' egos. The first violinist really comes across as a jerk in some scenes. Not that the other characters are much better. Some scenes grow REALLY intense.It turns out to be a very interesting little movie. The collection of classical string quartets and suites to set the stage for what eventually must come to pass represents an insightful look at the role that music plays in our lives. Good support comes from cookbook author Madhur Jaffrey and "My Dinner with Andre" co-star Wallace Shawn (also of "The Princess Bride" and "Toy Story").We can only speculate on the direction that Hoffman's career would've taken had he not died.

Pretentious film, with a weak plot and OK but unimpressive acting. The film pretends to show a psychological drama inside a famous string quartet. Instead it is very banal melodrama with a predictable and flat plot. Don't expect to learn new things about Beethoven or classical music from this film. One of the actors (Christopher Walken) is not fitting the role and this is poorly masked by barely showing his hands when he is playing cello. The other actors at least give impression that they had some violin training. This film is supposed to be about finding an ultimate perfection in music but the actual performance leaves much to be desired.