{"id":5280,"date":"2013-02-13T06:30:37","date_gmt":"2013-02-13T14:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/?p=5280"},"modified":"2021-06-01T08:00:59","modified_gmt":"2021-06-01T15:00:59","slug":"review-latequartet-bd","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/2013\/02\/review-latequartet-bd\/","title":{"rendered":"A Late Quartet Blu-ray Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> is the surprise gem of 2012 featuring four great performances, one of which from Walken deserving of more recognition, and a story which is rich with great drama, even when certain scenes get on the melodramatic side.<\/p>\n

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\nA Late Quartet (2012)<\/strong><\/p>\n


\nREVIEW NAVIGATION<\/strong><\/span>
\nThe Movie<\/a> | Special Features<\/a> | Video Quality<\/a> | Audio Quality<\/a> | Overall<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

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Genre(s): <\/b>Drama
\nFox | R \u2013 106 min. \u2013 $29.99 | February 5, 2013<\/p>\n

MOVIE INFO:
\n<\/span>Directed by: <\/b>Yaron Zilberman
\nWriter(s): <\/b>Yaron Zilberman (story), Yaron Zilberman & Seth Grossman (screenplay)
\nCast: <\/b>Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ivanir, Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Imogen Poots, Liraz Charri, Wallace Shawn<\/p>\n

Theatrical Release Date: <\/b>November 2, 2012 (limited)<\/p>\n

DISC INFO:
\n<\/span>Features: <\/b>Featurette
\nNumber of Discs: <\/b>1<\/p>\n

Audio: <\/b>English (DTS-HD MA 5.1)
\nVideo: <\/b>1080p\/Widescreen 2.40
\nSubtitles: <\/b>English SDH, Spanish
\nDisc Size: <\/b>22.3 GB
\nCodec: <\/b>MPEG-4 AVC
\nRegion(s): <\/b>A<\/p>\n

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THE MOVIE<\/strong> \u2013 4.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Writer\/Director Yaron Zilberman\u2019s A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> is, despite a few minor issues with the story, one of the better and surprising dramas released in 2012. The film had a minimal theatrical release appearing only on 100 screens at its widest (nabbing a respectable $1.5M), but what was most impressive is despite its niche subject, classical music, is relatively accessible to the general audience.<\/p>\n

The story centers on members of a world-renowned string quartet \u2014 Daniel Lerner (MARK IVANIR) on first violin, Robert Gelbart (PHILIP SEYMOUR HOFFMAN) on second violin, Juliette Gelbart (CATHERINE KEENER) on the viola and cellist Peter Mitchell (CHRISTOPHER WALKEN) \u2014 are celebrating their 25th<\/sup> anniversary and more than 3000 performances. Their core is shaken when Peter announces his intentions to retire after being diagnosed with the early stages of Parkinson\u2019s disease.<\/p>\n

Peter\u2019s revelation certainly causes a shake-up with the group, though it\u2019s apparently something that has been fermenting for some time. Robert for instance has been wanting to do something different rather than the same old, same old; the marriage between him and Juliette is holding on by a thread especially when she doesn\u2019t support his dream of playing first violin; Daniel is stubborn and takes a stern tone with the process but receives liberation in the unlikeliest place: from Robert and Juliette\u2019s college-aged daughter, Alexandra (IMOGEN POOTS), also a violinist, as the pair grow closer after a few private lessons.<\/p>\n

A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> is perhaps the most fascinating movie I\u2019ve seen come out of 2012. No, it\u2019s not the best and there are a couple melodramatic moments that occur especially between Juliette and Alexandra, but setting those aside, it\u2019s a quiet, unassuming movie with performances which are amazing but at the same time understated.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately none of them received very much attention when it comes to the Golden Globes or Academy Awards with Christopher Walken specifically deserving a Supporting Actor nod for his heartfelt and emotional appearance, something that of late has been missing as, from my perspective, he\u2019s become mostly a caricature of himself (save for Seven Psychopaths<\/i> which he also was quite good in).<\/p>\n

Philip Seymour Hoffman once again does a fine job, something I expect nothing less from the veteran; Catherine Keener works wonderfully with a strong character who shows a real weakness as she deals with her marriage; Mark Ivanir is the unknown of the group, and doesn\u2019t even get his name on the poster, but provides the obdurate passion of the quartet; and Imogen Poots is wonderful as the young person, though I think some might find her attempt at an American accent distracting.<\/p>\n

A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> was skillfully co-written, with Seth Grossman and directed by Yaron Zilberman marking his feature-length debut following a 2004 documentary entitled Watermarks<\/i> about two Jewish swimmers in the 1930s. It\u2019s quite an accomplishment to tell a story about classical music performance keeping it both interesting and open for a general audience who may no little to nothing at all about the subject. I loved the fact it is a character-oriented drama and although it does delve into the music, it never gets lost in the weeds and instead the story was able to use the quartet in a metaphorical sense.<\/p>\n

Hardly a masterpiece, A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> is still well worth checking out for an involving story and well developed characters. Christopher Walken in particular deserves praise for his performance which should\u2019ve received an Oscar nomination, but even without Award-recognition, which in recent years has become vastly overrated, the film should be seen for him.<\/p>\n

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SPECIAL FEATURES \u2013 1.0\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Discord and Harmony (7:46; HD)<\/span><\/b> is a simple behind-the-scenes featurette with cast\/crew interviews as the filmmakers discuss the plot and the characters. It\u2019s not a bad feature but you won\u2019t learn anything new about the production.<\/p>\n

Previews<\/b> \u2013 The Oranges<\/i>, Atlas Shrugged II: The Strike<\/i><\/p>\n

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VIDEO \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Twentieth Century Fox releases A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> on Blu-ray with a decent if not unspectacular looking 1080p high-definition transfer. Presented in its original 2.40 widescreen aspect ratio, the back cover erroneously states it is 1.78, I didn\u2019t feel this was a great transfer as the colors are relatively muted but during the daylight scenes, the detail levels do look good, though and the darker levels have a nice starkness to them not showing artifacting or pixilation.
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AUDIO \u2013 4.25\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track for a movie that is mostly dialogue-driven was impressive especially during the musical moments where, even though it is classical, you can really sense the depth with each note. Dialogue levels, though, do sound nice and clear primarily coming from the center channel while Angelo Badalamenti\u2019s score sounds wonderful to go along with the classic music as well.<\/p>\n

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OVERALL \u2013 3.75\/5<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Overall, A Late Quartet<\/i><\/b> is the surprise gem of 2012 featuring four great performances, one of which from Walken deserving of more recognition, and a story which is rich with great drama, even when certain scenes get on the melodramatic side. Co-Writer\/Director Yaron Zilberman delivers a great drama that hopefully will get more notice over the years.<\/p>\n

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The Movieman
\n<\/i>Published: <\/b>02\/13\/2013<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Late Quartet is the surprise gem of 2012 featuring four great performances, one of which from Walken deserving of more recognition, and a story which is rich with great drama, even when certain scenes get on the melodramatic side.    <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[964,1103,1100,1877,1878,264],"class_list":["post-5280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blurayreviews","tag-catherine-keener","tag-christopher-walken","tag-imogen-poots","tag-late-quartet","tag-mark-ivanir","tag-philip-seymour-hoffman"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5280"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26395,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5280\/revisions\/26395"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/moviemansguide.com\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}