A Late Quartet is charming little ensemble film, it almost feels like an adaptation of a stage play.The Fugue is a New York based string quartet that has been going for almost 25 years. It sets out to perform Beethoven's Opus 131, a long and tricky composition.Peter (Christopher Walken) the founder of the group notices tremors in his fingers which is diagnosed as early Parkinson's disease. His announcement to the rest of the group of his medical issues leads to a chain reaction where others assess their futures, professionally and personally.Juliette (Catherine Keener) and Robert (Philip Seymour Hoffman) are married whose daughter, Alexandra is also a violinist. Robert is tired of playing second fiddle to the group and after a one night stand, questions if Juliette ever truly loved him.Robert wants to share lead violin with Daniel (Mark Ivanir) and later Robert accuses Daniel of not playing with passion. Daniel who has in effect become the leader of the quartet, has been teaching Alexandra the violin, then has a passionate romance with her that she herself has initiated.Among these complications, of jealousies and betrayals, it seems the quartet are finished after spending so many years in harmony.This is a well acted little film. The heart of the film belongs to Walken who wants the quartet to have a future and carry on. It also has a strong performance from Seymour Hoffman, a man who feels vulnerable in middle age, who wants to grab a chance to get a share of the limelight.I feel the passionate romance elements of the story lets it down. It is difficult to imagine a young voluptuous woman would fall for porky, crumpled up middle aged Robert or Alexandra falling for the rather staid Daniel unable to play music he knows so well without his sheet music with added annotation.

Greetings from Lithuania."A Late Quartet" (2012) is a very honest, good picture. I know, the premise of a drama about quartet doesn't sound really exciting , but trust me, this movie is really good for even those (like me) who don't know anything about serious music. The acting is superb, very solid, especially by the great Christopher Walken. This movie is so touching is it's on way you just can't let it go. Overall, a very solid 9/10 for "A Late Quartet", and sadly, the title represents the very sad and sudden departure of one of our greatest actors Philip Seymour Hoffman - do your self a favor and watch this picture, it's a truly great picture about theme you won't find in a movies - it's like bottle of good wine.

A Late Quartet (2012)This movie has become all the more poignant after the passing of 2nd violinist (in the quarter), Philip Seymour-Hoffman. And it's already a moving look at people wanting in their esoteric way to find meaning, great beauty, and love in their lives. Isn't that all the really matters?There are a myriad of interpersonal relationships here, including between two of the players who are married (and their daughter, who has an affair with a third player). In a way, the movie feels like a Beethoven quartet made literary, with all the counterpoint and harmony, all the relationships between parts. A very smart enterprise, but also a beautiful one.The movie might sound a bit dull from the outside, especially if you aren't a fan of classic music. I can't totally respond to that fairly because I am steeped in classic music a lot, and have some knowledge of the string quartet as a form (and a revered one). Beethoven, too, takes special important, not just for being a great composer, but because his "late" quartets are thought by some (including me) to be among the few greatest, inexplicably astonishing pieces of music ever written in any culture and era. They are that rich formally, emotionally, viscerally.So little pieces of the music sneak in as the human plot elements unfold. To call this an ensemble piece plays well on the pun. The way the players play with each other, and against each other, is oddly believable even if it seems that world, the classic music world, is a bit isolated from the rest of us on a day to day basis. The performances—again a pun—by the actors are subtle and intense.If Hoffman takes my attention now, a few months after his death, and if Catherine Keener is excellent as his wife, Christopher Walken might in the long run deserve the most attention for his role as cellist of the group. Playing against type, he is a serious, aging musician who discovers he has a degenerative disease. How does a man whose career, and love of life, depends on his hands adjust to not having them respond as needed? And what happens to the quartet, the group of four musicians molded by years together? That becomes a moving, meaty essence of the movie.By the way, it is normal for string quartet performing groups to form and stay together intact for decades—sometimes forty years without change. This means they are musically in tune with each other in an almost mystical way. It also means (as the movie explores) that their personal lives are bound and interwoven. It's a fabulously esoteric, unique part of the cultural world that you have to love.This movie is a great step to understanding and feeling why.

This is one of the most beautiful movies I have seen lately. Beautiful photography, a finely crafted plot and a superb ensemble of actors and behind- the - scenes musicians. Two actors carry the weight of the drama on their excellent and proved performance capabilities. Philip Seymour Hoffman the second violin of the Fugue Quartet, and Christopher Walken as the cellist and oldest member. Although the film centers around the performance of Beethoven's No. 131 String Quartet, the core of this movie is about human relations. This movie is not for the guy or girl who loves only high adrenaline + special effects flick. This movie is for people who like theater and old style drama. A bonus for the viewer is the magnificent and moving music by Beethoven, and Korngold. If you love classical music as I do, this film is a rare and precious jewel.