2012 movie
Rating: 16/20
Plot: The Fugue is ready to celebrate their 25th season together, but the quartet’s patriarch learns that he has Parkinson’s which seems to set in motion a series of conflicts that threaten to tear the group apart.
What a beautiful movie this is! I don’t think I ever would have watched this unless somebody told me to or I had a Philip Seymour Hoffman Fest. It’s the type of adult movie that I generally try to avoid, but I really kind of loved it from the very beginning, an opening scene with the titular quartet walking to their positions on stage for the performance that bookends this movie with their names appearing above them. And then Walken quotes T.S. Eliot:
“Time present and time past are both perhaps present in time future, and time future contained in time past. If all time is eternally present, all time is unredeemable. Or say that the end precedes the beginning, and the end and the beginning were always there before the beginning and after the end. And all is always now.”
I wanted to write out what I thought this movie was all about, but any theme I tried coming up with seemed like it made about as much sense as this. I think that quote does set things up nicely though, and I like how this gradually puts pieces in place for us with these characters and their complex relationships and then having their pasts and maybe futures clash beautifully for that moment on the stage together. Not everything is resolved here for you people who like to have everything resolved, but I think that’s part of the point. It’s a stunning look at the human condition and how egotism, betrayal, jealousy, selfishness, loss, sacrifice, and a myriad of other things not only can’t get in the way of human beings making beautiful music together–proverbially and literally–but how those things all provide the fire needed to bring out artistic passion. Maybe. Metaphorical art maybe? I loved a line from Walken that really sealed it for me: “I can be grateful. . .for even one transcendent moment.” I’m not a musician, and I don’t have any expertise in classical music although I do listen to it when I want to trick myself into thinking I’m smarter than I actually am, so if the narrative of this borrows its structure from music, I wouldn’t know. I’d like to think it does though because that would be cute. There’s a great ensemble cast here. Christopher Walken gets a non-cool and completely serious role, and he nails it. I could probably hear him say anything though if I’m in the right mood. He’s best in a heartbreaking scene where his wife sings. Philip Seymour Hoffman gets himself a sex scene with a beautiful actress named Liraz Charhi, has a couple scenes where he is running recreationally, and, more believably, eats with his fingers. He’s as great as you’d expect him to be with a wide range of emotions. Catherine Keener’s always good, and Mark Ivanir is too as the other person. Wallace Shawn, a guy with two first names, and Imogen Poots, a woman with no first names, are also really good. And I really liked seeing Liraz Charhi in the three scenes she had in this movie. Initially, I wondered if any of these actors could actually play their instruments. Apparently, they took enough lessons to fool non-musicians into thinking they were actual musicians. It fooled me anyway. The soundtrack, as expected, is really great.
Did I mention that there’s a metronome in this movie? I probably don’t need to remind my faithful readers what I think of metronomes.
