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Review: Quartet (2013)

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Mark Leeper

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Feb 21, 2013, 3:08:36 PM2/21/13
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QUARTET
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)

CAPSULE: At a home for retired musicians many of the
residents are some of the former greats of the operatic
stage. To save the home they are putting on an opera
gala and would like something smashing to perform. The
home has three of the singers from an opera history
classic performance of the quartet from RIGOLETTO. When
the fourth singer moves to the home it seems like the
repeat performance is a real possibility, but newly
arrived Jean (Maggie Smith) is not at all happy with the
home and its residents. Ronald Harwood adapts his play
to the screen. At age 75 Dustin Hoffman directs a film for
the first time, a film with comedy and grace. Rating:
+2 (-4 to +4) or 7/10

There is a rarely recognized genre of film I would call
"octogenarian films." Most films seem to concentrate on people
considerably younger, say from age seventeen to thirty. Fewer
films seem to have main characters in the forty to sixty range.
But then there is a genre of films for and about people roughly in
their eighties. You have films like THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD
HOTEL, MRS. HENDERSON PRESENTS, and MRS. PALFREY AT THE CLAREMONT.
They seem to play in art houses largely to audiences of retirees.
This is a viewership that has time and money but very little
interest in Wolverine or Iron Man. So some films are being made
for them.

Beecham House for Retired Musicians is having financial problems.
Generally the way they handle such problems is staging a gala
performance once a year. They do have some of the great names in
20th century musical talent. A real coup would be if they could
restage one of the great legendary performances of opera, four
great stars singing the quartet from Verdi's RIGOLETTO. They
actually have three of those great singers living at the home.
They have Reginald Paget (played by Tom Courtenay), Wilf Bond
(Billy Connolly), and Cissy Robson (Pauline Collins). But it will
not be a great performance if they cannot their fourth star Jean
Horton (Maggie Smith). The repeat performance is just a pipedream
until Jean Horton actually also comes to live at the home. But all
their problems are not over. Jean is having a very hard time
adjusting to the new surroundings. In addition, Reginald will not
work with Jean under any circumstances. There is history between
Reginald and Jean. Reginald has had a grudge against Jean for many
decades now and he refuses to have anything to do with her.

The star of the film is, of course, Maggie Smith. Smith is almost
a female equivalent of Morgan Freeman. We see a lot of her playing
with a sly wit, but it is nearly always the same character with no
more than minor variations. Jean is little different from Muriel
Donnelly from THE BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL or Violet Crawley from
TV's "Downton Abbey". Here, however, Smith has some first-class
competition from a very funny Billy Connolly who plays at being a
perpetually randy, occasionally vulgar, dirty old man. He flirts
with every woman within range and a few that are not. Connolly is
as funny as John Cleese to whom he bears no small physical
resemblance. (At least one person from our party came away
thinking she had seen John Cleese.) The plot is simple, and the
acting is quiet. Dustin Hoffman, directing a film for the first
time, gives us a film as comfortable as an old stuffed chair. And
in one touch unusual for a film about old people, nobody even comes
close to dying. Another touch is that a very large number of the
home residents really are well-known music makers. If you know
classical music be sure to stick around for the credits as well as
enjoying the music throughout. I rate QUARTET a +2 on the -4 to +4
scale or 7/10.

Film Credits: <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441951/combined>

What others are saying:
<http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/quartet_2012/>


Mark R. Leeper
mle...@optonline.net
Copyright 2013 Mark R. Leeper
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