A Late Quartet
Three stars out of five
Starring: Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir, Imogen Poots
Directed by: Yaron Zilberman
Running time: 106 minutes
Parental advisory: Sexually suggestive scene
Slowly dragging a horsehair bow across four taut strings of character, director Yaron Zilberman creates a tight little piece of cinematic chamber music in A Late Quartet.
Neither flamboyant nor sedate, this moody winter?s tale goes for a tempered, authentic mood as it scratches at the guts of a seasoned string quartet.
Christopher Walken pulls us into the ?F hole? of this particular instrument as Peter Mitchell, a veteran cellist who is diagnosed with Parkinson?s disease at the top of the picture.
Peter is obviously distraught by the news and begins to question his life purpose now that his musical sunset is on the horizon, but his bigger concern is the fate of the string quartet he helped birth many moons ago.
After stroking the hollow bodies of their wooden partners together for more than two decades, the quartet had developed its own voice and personality as the individual styles fused into one whole chorus.
They could be together without really talking and get by on the fumes of familiarity, yet the creative side was beginning to slip, much to the chagrin of second violinist Robert (Philip Seymour Hoffman).
Eager to ditch the notes and sheet music to embrace the spontaneous life force of the spheres, Robert is hoping the pending shakeup will give him a shot at assuming the lead position of first violin.
Sadly, he?s the only one who feels that way because everyone else thinks Daniel (Mark Ivanir) is the epitome of string quartet perfection, a dedicated violinist who never ceases to practice and hone his skills.
In fact, Daniel?s chief champion is none other than Robert?s viola-playing wife, Juliette (Catherine Keener) ? a woman who used to date Daniel but ended up with Robert after conceiving a child.
That kid is all grown up now, and she, too, has musical ambitions. The only snag is she?s getting pointers from Daniel, and some of them aren?t entirely musical. Halfway through the film, these two fall into the proverbial sack, ensuring Zilberman?s dramatic etude of egos and art has endlessly soapy and operatic dimensions.
Mercifully, Zilberman resists the temptation to drag us around like a half-dead mouse. Instead, he gives us enough self-awareness and humour to mute the melancholy, allowing A Late Quartet to shimmy up the middle of the narrow art house chimney.
It?s a tight squeeze at times, and there are moments when the viewer may feel a little trapped by the close emotional quarters inhabited by the quartet. Yet, every time the walls close in, Zilberman finds a nice human soft spot to let us crawl through.
For instance, the affair between Daniel and Alexandra (Imogen Poots) is cringe-inducing on several levels, but just when it looks like the whole tawdry business could result in tragedy, Zilberman pulls back and opens the door to gentle, observational comedy.
He does this over and over again, using the movements of Beethoven?s Opus 131 as his dramatic template.
Considered one of the hardest pieces of music to play because it contains no rests, Opus 131 has a lot more notes than Zilberman?s screenplay, but it proves a workable musical metaphor for the movie because it has plunging depths and giddy heights.
The actors play with these motifs and scenes with the same creative commitment as a musician approaching a page of sheet music. They want to make it their own, without compromising the inherent integrity of the piece through ego.
That said, Hoffman, Walken, Keener and Ivanir make a rather impressive thespian quartet. Not only do we believe in them as characters, Zilberman?s crafty direction and use of doubles allows us to believe in them as musicians, as well.
Walken may be the biggest treat in the movie, because as the veteran leader of the quartet facing a life-altering physical change, he?s the reservoir of soul and the most sympathetic figure on screen ? which isn?t always the case for the man who is usually hired to play unhinged and unpredictable oddballs.
Walken looks emancipated in the role of Peter, and with every carefully crafted moment of screen time, he makes us think about the big dilemma of continuity in an ever-changing world.
Because the script takes its foot off the dramatic gas every time it looks like it?s going all Thelma & Louise over the cliff, the viewer can sit back and enjoy the urban ride as Zilberman does a great job pulling out the exotic yet everyday bits of life experience that define a musical vocation.
Combined with evocative shots of a snow-covered Manhattan and texture-soaked close-ups of ancient stringed instruments, A Late Quartet emerges as a good-looking and well-acted drama ? but one that fails to make a deep impression one way or another.
Source: http://o.canada.com/2012/11/29/movie-review-a-late-quartet/
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