A Late Quartet
I don't mean to sound dismissive when I say this was pleasant. Sometimes, the simple pleasure of watching old pros relax into a script that lets them pass the greatness around can form the kind of film that lodges in your heart. Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Christopher Walken all get to do something a little different. Not challenging, but a softer side. (How I miss Hoffman, an extra layer of sadness to this film.) I wonder if we all have a movie like this. For me, it's an almost identical film from the very same year called Quartet. (I know!) My Essential stars Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay and Billy Connolly, and coincidentally they also play members of a musical Quartet. (My film even has a Hoffman. The director is Dustin H.)
As someone in the business, I found particular interest in the 4th member of the group. Mark Ivanir is no amateur, but he has to fill out this card of acting heavyweights, and he doesn't just hold his own. He's every bit as good. I'm more familiar with Imogen Poots, 5th in the billing, and she's mostly fine though there's a key scene with Keener where she doesn't seem confident. Director Yaron Zilberman put a lot of faith in Ivanir not having to be carried, just like the big three put their faith in a relative unknown like Ivanir. It's gets a bit soap opera around the middle, with Walken being given little to do but remind you he's in the film with some sad, lonely scenes. The end however, delivers some big heart. (smirnoff, much as Walken gets the big moment in the ending and it's a wonderful curtain call of a scene, I was particularly struck again by Ivanir, when he takes Hoffman's words, closes the music and chooses to play with his heart.)