A Late Quartet (2012)

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.

It's not easy for Americans to produce credible emotions - as we see them in Europe on screen. This film goes as far in that direction as possible. It's easy to say that any flick with Philip Seymour Hoffman is a good one, and he dominates the screen indeed, but a lot of good acting happens when he isn't there too. Mark Ivanir of Saving Private Ryan fame plays a very intense Daniel and a young Imogen Poots presents a credible Alexandra.Indeed it isn't so much about music, it is about a small team of people working very intensely together, who face a major crisis and about suppressed emotions coming out because of that. The plot moves rather slowly for you to enjoy elaborate scenes some may find a bit tedious at times. Quite enjoyable for a late night viewing with a glass of wine on a quiet evening.

It's very amusing to see "musicians" complain about the "playing" of the actors (even going so far as to deride the Nina character, who, as was pointed out by one reviewer, is in fact a member of the Brentano Quartet and the only musician in the cast). I have sad news for you: the actors who play gangsters on TV are not real gangsters. Those who play doctors are often not doctors. And not all those who play soldiers or policemen are real either (and sometimes, SHOCK! they don't even appear on screen in regulation hair style). I've even heard (although I don't know for sure) that actors who play lovers on screen are not lovers in real life, and that the things they say to each other are not what you and I say to our lovers. As Tony Soprano says to his son about The Godfather: "A.J. It's a MOVIE."

A stellar cast do their best with what could have been an interesting exploration of the professional and emotional lives of top-class musicians. Unfortunately, cack-handed directing and writing means 'A Late Quartet' lacks subtlety and brings suspended disbelief crashing to the ground.Such suspension is necessary if, for example, we are to take Christopher Walken (doing his best to smother his trade-mark voice but admittedly adding a much needed third dimension to his character) seriously as a world class Cellist... The film failed to sell me the world of classical music and the lives of these characters. 'A Late Quartet' prefers excruciating exposition and hammy facts about Beethoven, which at times render the dialogue copy and paste from Wikipedia, to a sense of tone and genuine observation. Sautet's 'Un Coeur en Hiver', for example, admirably achieves what 'A Late Quartet' fails to do; namely inducting an audience into the exclusive world of classical music and high culture without treating them like idiots. The result is a beautiful film which allows the music and its characters to take centre stage, and I longed for 'A Late Quartet' to do the same and deliver on its potential. However, it fails to strike a consistent tone. At one point a scene involving Poots, Keener and Ivanir comes dangerously close to descending into a farce straight out of a lowest-common-denominator RomCom, in just one of many examples where the film contrived to undermine itself.Nonetheless, 'A Late Quartet' is not terrible and I was entertained. It offers flashes of sincerity and a few touching moments which I would attribute to the quality of the actors and an interesting conceit. However, I found myself laughing at it much more than I was moved by it. A film which is definitely hard to take as seriously as it wants to be taken.