Saiten des Lebens

I was expecting "A Late Quartet" to rely on heady themes of classical musical. Before going into it, I did at least learn some of the emotions that are involved in Beethoven's Opus 131, and interestingly, that was probably enough. I still believe that music fans will get a lot out of it, but it's meant for fans of relationship dramas where the slightest word or indiscretion can do a number on the players' psyches.

The quartet is made up of cellist Peter (Christopher Walken), first violinist Daniel (Mark Ivanir), second violinist Robert (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Juliette (Catherine Keener) on the viola. Peter has just developed Parkinson's disease and is contemplating leaving the quartet. He's the oldest and the de-facto/emotional leader of the group and he's the only one that seems to have matured past the maturity level of a teenager. That's an insult to the other characters, but it works to the benefit of the film.

Daniel as the first violinist is the musical leader. They look to him for which direction their quartet should go musically. Which leaves us with Robert and Juliette, a married couple. Robert has the ego of a leader and Juliette has the determination of a leader. Their emotional instability is set to wreak havoc on the success of the quartet as well as on the life of their daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots). There are affairs aplenty, passive aggressive snideness, violent outbursts of rage, and so many questionable decisions – on everybody's part. Daniel may be the leader, but depending where your sympathies lie he might also be the worst offender.

Above all else, "A Late Quartet" is an actor's film. Powerhouse performances from Hoffman and Ivanir; a fantastic powerful and sympathetic performance by Poots; and an emotionally strong performance by Keener. And somehow Walken fit in nicely in the more subtle and low- key role. Hoffman is funny when Robert's being passive aggressive, scary when he's mad, sympathetic when he's clueless, and incites our rage/passion when he's in the right. Keener manages to invoke the exact opposite responses through those emotions while Daniel walks the thin line between evil and sympathetic through all of his insidious and, at times, kindhearted moves.

To like this film you will need to be able to get invested in all the relationship dynamics going on. But if you're a fan of any of the five principal actors, that should be pretty easy. I'm in love with Philip Seymour Hoffman and while I didn't think it was possible to top his career best performance in "The Master" (2012), he just may have done that here.

There is a scene of Christopher Walken, playing the older declining cellist Peter Mitchell recounting an audition with the great Pablo Casals, where he said his rendition of a known classic was "just awful, nothing but mistakes" but the Maestro praised it with evident sincerity. Mitchell had remained disturbed by the seeming lack of candor, until many decades later when both were at the top of the pack over a glass of wine he asked him about it. His response is a lesson for reviewing this film and beyond.

"I heard those mistakes, but I also felt your passion, your conveying it in strong sensitive lyrical phrases that others rarely achieve. Those critics who keep track of every wrong note are missing out on what music and life has to offer." And so I will leave the defects of this film to others, as there are many scenes that detracted from what I experienced, a rare sensitive exploration of life using a string quartet as exemplar and metaphor. I only went to the art house to see this expecting it to be, based on the reviews, a formulaic movie that happened to be shot in my old neighborhood of Lincoln Center area of New York. My wife is an amateur violinist who always came home from her week long chamber music camp with the glow of playing in groups such as this film depicted.

After seeing this film I understand why. These depicted consummate musicians, who rather than the solo careers available to them, chose to form a single instrument, one that required that most human ability of merging of individuality into something that can only be achieved by--the word for it is "symbiosis," different organisms uniting in a common goal. While the conflicts of ego, sexual attraction, fame and glory may seem hackneyed, it is because this is the universal challenge of sustaining any such group-from a marriage to a nation.

In my old neighborhood, a young world-famous violinist bought into our coop building. We lost touch when I moved to California a decade ago, and wondered why with unlimited solo bookings he had played with a chamber group. This film explained why, not only from a musicological level, but from the human desire to be part of something beyond our individuality. That is the element of this film that transcends music.

You see, I also play in quartets, but they are doubles tennis with two people on each side ostensibly playing against each other. Yet, for it to work, for it to give the same type of pleasure that my wife and soloist friend got out of chamber music, all four have to work together enjoying the virtuoso shots of any of the foursome, no matter which side of the net they are on. And like in this magnificent film, the ego that makes for the excitement, when taken too far, to the point of self serving line calls leading to animosity, can destroy the entire experience.

And as a string quartet playing off of each other in an "allegro" passage; in tennis, a flurry of volleys followed with a running get that is returned for a winner can bring joy to the performers and the audience. This perfect miniature of a film, like all great productions, is only achieved by such seamless excellence that no one can tell where one individual's contribution ends and the other's begins.

It is about the most sublime and entertaining lousy flick I've ever seen.

The moments when and idea for a story, the intelligence of a script to tell it, the sensitivity of the director to make it work, and the cast of extraordinary actors to make it visual come all too infrequently these days in the films that cross our theater screens. A LATE QUARTET is such a complete success on so many levels that it should be considered a standard for filmmaking excellence. It is cerebral, yes, it is best appreciated by people who are involved in some way with classical music even if that be solely as an audience, but the dynamics of this little 'community' of people drawn together by a lasting contract to rehearse and perform for the better part of their time and the effect of physical proximity and the risks of intellectual/artistic distances have rarely been so exquisitely painted.

The honored Fugue Quartet has been living and performing together for 25 years: first violin Daniel Lerner (Ukrainian American actor Mark Ivanir), second violin Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman), cellist Peter Mitchell (Christopher Walken), and violist Juliette Gelbart (Catherine Keener) make such perfect music together that we would never guess their lives are askew. Peter is diagnosed as having Parkinson's Disease and understands that his performing days are now severely limited; the Gelbart's marriage is at risk because of the tatters of time and the dealing with daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots) who reacts to her history of being an alone child by entering into a physical affair with obsessive Daniel and Robert's ill-advised one night stand with the young beautiful Pilar (Liraz Charhi); Robert's surfacing jealousy of wanting to be first violin: the struggle with whether the quartet should disband due to Peter's illness or continue with a new cellist. All of this complex interplay of human relationships is underlined by the quartet's rehearing of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, opus 131 - a long quartet of seven movements played without interval. It is a sensitively drawn allegory that takes us all the way to the end of the film.

In addition to the bravura acting of the four lead actors there are side stories that are enormously touching: the affair between Alexandra and Daniel, the conflict between Alexandra and her absentee mother (a brilliant scene), the schism between Robert and Juliette as the foundation of their marriage begins to crumble, and the extraordinarily sensitive moment when Peter longs for his deceased wife Miriam - first while listening to a recording of Miriam singing Marietta's Lied from Korngold's opera 'Die Tote Stadt' and then as the image of Miriam (Anne Sofie von Otter) is seen and heard in is mind.

Each of the actors in this masterfully crafted film is astonishingly fine. If there were an Oscar for Ensemble this would have won hands down, but the performances by Christopher Walken (the finest of his career) and Philip Seymour Hoffman are exemplary and the characters Catherine Keener, Mark Ivanir and Imogen Poots create are utterly unforgettable. The highest recommendation for this work - it is a film every sensitive person should see.

Grady Harp

I watched this movie out of appreciation for Hoffman. So glad I did. Independent films such as this one have really begin to open my eyes to another world of cinema.

It's always great to see new faces and uncover some true talent, like Mark Ivanir. I only saw him in the Good Shepherd, but this performance will remain with me for some time. He seemed very attached to his role.

I recommend this movie to anyone who has a growing interest in classical music. It definitely furthered my interest. Listening to Chopin as I write this. :)

Be warned, the plot seemed slow and at is some times difficult to relate to. However, still a very good movie to open your mind to.

This movie grabs you from the get go with its unique tone and story. Even though it revolves so much about classic music and instruments you don't need too be a fan of that to enjoy this beautiful story about friendship, family, sacrifice and love.

This is a well crafted story but make no mistake it get's knocked out of the park by the heavyweights of acting. Keener, Hoffman and Walken bring out the best in each other making every scene special and just when you think a scene was that great of a performance you'll get another one and another one until you realize just like them that things don't last forever.