A Late Quartet (2012)

Drama, Music

Director: Yaron Zilberman
Writers: Yaron Zilberman, Seth Grossman
Starring: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Mark Ivanir

"No arrangement is more beautiful...or more complicated."

Academy Award Winners Christopher Walken and Philip Seymour Hoffman strike all the right chords with Academy Award Nominee Catherine Keener and Mark Ivanir in this powerful story that blends raw emotion with fiery passion to form an unforgettable cinematic masterpiece.

For 25 years, the Fugue, a string quartet, has wowed music-lovers with its skilled performances. However, as the musicians prepare to celebrate a milestone season together, cellist Peter (Walken) drops a bombshell on his comrades: he has Parkinson's disease and must soon retire. In the fallout from the shocking announcement, competing egos clash, long-simmering resentments bubble to the surface, and marital infidelity rears its ugly head.

Plot summary from IMDb: After a classical string quartet's 25 years of success, Peter, the cellist and oldest member, decides that he must retire when he learns he has Parkinson's Disease. For the others, that announcement proves a catalyst for letting their hidden resentments come to the surface while the married members' daughter has disruptive desires of her own. All this threatens to tear the group apart even as they are famous for playing Beethoven's String Quartet No. 14, opus 131, a piece that is played non-stop no matter how life interferes.

Awards: 2 nominations.
Runtime: 105 min
R