Movie Snapshot: "A Late Quartet" - Starring Christopher Walken

Play classical music. Insert melodramatic plot twist. Rinse and repeat. A Late Quartet stars Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Philip Seymour Hoffman and Mark Ivanir, as a string quartet celebrating their 25th anniversary, while also dealing with a series of personal setbacks that may threaten their future. Cellist Peter Mitchell (Walken) experiences weakness in his left hand which may signal the onset of Parkinson's disease, married couple Robert (Hoffman) and Juliette (Keener) have an unexpected argument that bruises Robert's ego and leads to a poor decision on his part, and Daniel (Ivanir) falls in love with someone close to the group, which causes even more problems among the quartet.

When the focus is on the music and the Fugue quartet practices for Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, Op. 131, the film works well. The four lead actors look natural as musicians, although the music viewers hear is by the Brentano String Quartet, and they realistically behave as though they have known each other for many years. While it is important to explore characters, the screenplay, by Yaron Zilberman and Seth Grossman, gets bogged down in the sordid details of their personal lives of three of them. As a result, I did not particularly care for or about Robert, Juliette or Daniel, despite the performances from the aforementioned actors.

A Late Quartet is initially anchored by Peter's medical problems, which works well, courtesy of the understated and completely effective work from Walken. However, the film then loses momentum and focuses on the aforementioned sordid details of an affair and a love affair, neither of which ring true. Further problems result from a miscast and completely obnoxious supporting character. I also found myself losing interest intermittently throughout the film, especially when Walken, Keener and Hoffman are absent. My anticipation was high for A Late Quartet, but I was somewhat disappointed in the overall film. The talent is present to produce something memorable, but the execution is lacking.