{"id":32177,"date":"2012-11-02T07:00:12","date_gmt":"2012-11-02T14:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/?p=32177"},"modified":"2012-11-02T10:39:31","modified_gmt":"2012-11-02T17:39:31","slug":"rethink-reviews-a-late-quartet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/2012\/11\/02\/rethink-reviews-a-late-quartet\/","title":{"rendered":"ReThink Reviews: A Late Quartet"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"inline-playlist playlist\" title=\"\"><li><a href=\"http:\/\/archive.org\/download\/DailyDigest110212.1\/2012_11_02_kim.mp3\">Listen to this segment<\/a><\/li><\/ul>\n<p><a href =\"http:\/\/www.rethinkreviews.net\"><img decoding=\"async\" align=right width=55% src=\"\/home\/graphics\/rethink_reviews_small.jpg\" alt=\"Rethink Reviews\" \/><\/a><strong>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. <\/strong>  <\/p>\n<p><em>Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. <\/em>  <\/p>\n<p> Read his reviews online at <a href=\"http:\/\/ReThinkReviews.net\">ReThinkReviews.net<\/a>. Watch his videos at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim\">www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim<\/a>, and follow him on Twitter at <a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews\">twitter.com\/ReThinkReviews<\/a>. ReThink Reviews&#8217; theme song is by <a href=\"http:\/\/www.myspace.com\/restaurantmusic\">Restavrant<\/a>.    <\/p>\n<p><strong>A Late Quartet<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Maybe you\u2019re like me and know next to nothing about classical music, string quartets, and the men and women who perform it. But none of those things kept me from enjoying \u2018A Late Quartet\u2019, an impressive indie film about a world-renowned string quartet as it grapples with the impending retirement of its leader and father figure. Naturally, it helps that that leader is played by Christopher Walken, and the other players include Philip Seymour Hoffman and Katherine Keener, as well as TV and video game-voice veteran Mark Ivanir. And if you\u2019re a fan of classical music and, particularly classical music for string quartet, I imagine this is the movie you\u2019ve been waiting for.<\/p>\n<p>Walken plays Peter, the quartet\u2019s cello player who learns early in the film that he has Parkinson\u2019s Disease and will need to leave the quartet after guiding it for 25 years. Without his calming influence, a long-simmering power struggle erupts between the quartet\u2019s two violinists. Daniel, played by Ivanir, is the first violin and an obsessive perfectionist, but Robert, played by Hoffman, has grown tired of Daniel\u2019s style and literally playing second fiddle to him and wants to share the first violin spot. Caught in between is viola player Juliette, played by Keener, who is married to Robert and wants to support him, but feels that Daniel is the better musician. To complicate matters, not only did Juliette and Daniel used to be an item, but Daniel is tutoring Robert and Juliette\u2019s college-age daughter Alexandra (played by Imogen Poots), who is a talented and promising violinist.<\/p>\n<p>For their last concert, the quartet plans to play Beethoven\u2019s Opus 131, one of Beethoven\u2019s favorites that\u2019s notable for being played \u201cattaca\u201d. That means the 40-minute piece is to be played without breaks, despite the fact that the players\u2019 instruments will inevitably become out of tune at different rates, forcing the players to adjust on the fly to the changing sound of their instrument as well as those of their fellow players. As you\u2019ve probably guessed, Opus 131 is a metaphor for the characters\u2019 growing conflicts and also provides the film\u2019s structure.<\/p>\n<p>If all this classical music talk has your eyes glazing over, don\u2019t sweat it. \u2018A Late Quartet\u2019 is much more about a somewhat incestuous family dynamic and the dysfunction that\u2019s revealed when it looks like dad won\u2019t be around to keep things in check. And while you get a fascinating, insightful look into the world of serious professional musicians, you could probably tell a similar story involving any group of people who have worked together at a high level for a long time, whether it\u2019s the cast of a TV show, people running a business, or players on a sports team.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, what makes all this work are the terrific performances that make it so easy to believe that these characters have known and worked with each other for 25 years. Hoffman, as usual, is excellent as a man who knows the importance of his supporting role but allows his simmering jealousy and resentment to jeopardize what\u2019s most important to him. Keener is sympathetic as sort of the good daughter facing her inability to make everyone happy, while Ivanir is convincing as someone whose clinical quest for perfection has made him a novice at experiencing his own emotions. And it\u2019s nice to see Walken playing a quiet, understated role while maintaining the commanding gravitas he so effortlessly exudes.<\/p>\n<p>My one gripe about \u2018A Late Quartet\u2019 is a subplot with Daniel and Alexandra, which I thought was pretty unrealistic. But aside from that, \u2018A Late Quartet\u2019 is one of those really nice, small, independent films for adults that attracts great actors not with fat paychecks, but with the opportunity to do great work together, even if few ever see it. If you like classical music, \u2018A Late Quartet\u2019 is a no-brainer. If you don\u2019t, but want to see a story about the tensions that can build over time in a group of experts, brought to life by some of the best actors in the game, you\u2019ll be very satisfied.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018A Late Quartet\u2019 is rated R and opens today in select theaters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Taking a deeper look at current and past films and how they relate to the world today. Jonathan Kim is an independent film critic who writes and produces film reviews for Uprising and other outlets. He is a former co-producer at Brave New Films. Read his reviews online at ReThinkReviews.net. Watch his videos at www.youtube.com\/user\/jsjkim, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rethink-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32177"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":32391,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32177\/revisions\/32391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/uprisingradio.org\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}