A Late Quartet 2012

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: A Late Quartet serves as an acting showcase, particularly for Walken and Hoffman, and makes for an interesting study in artistic ego. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: You don't have to be a classical fan to appreciate the film's air of inside baseball - the ease with which it navigates a hermetic world of people who understand music better than they understand themselves. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: The movie doesn't resolve on a sour note, but it takes the viewer along a too-familiar set of tones. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: It would be shortsighted to dismiss this deeply felt, musically savvy film, set in a refined cultural precinct of Manhattan, as sudsy melodrama. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: The movie sometimes gets stuck in its own awkward groove like a needle on a warped phonograph, but it has its moments. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: Walken - and Zilberman - shows us how music can utterly transport us to another place. Read more

Sam Adams, AV Club: Zilberman is breaking no new ground, but he gives his actors strong material and room to breathe. When the playing is strong enough, even a few notes can be as rich as a symphony. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: This lovely drama... is so attentive to the creative nuance and emotional dynamics of classical performance that I was almost disappointed when the story began to move into the various interpersonal conflicts between the players. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Of the cast, the standout is Walken, who gives a performance of superlative grace amid all the hectoring. Read more

Roger Ebert, Detroit News: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Although the crises are too precious, the performances are treasures, led by Christopher Walken in a surprisingly gentle, soulful key as the group's senior member. Read more

Amanda Mae Meyncke, Film.com: ...the very definition of a character driven drama, the performances humbling in their power. Read more

Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter: Strong performances mark a mildly involving tale of four classical musicians hoping to make it to the next season. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Zilberman's minimalistic approach fits the idea of the film better than it fits the actual film. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: For a film that relies so heavily on the lasting power of a classical master, A Late Quartet never really converts any viewers to his church. Read more

Stanley Kauffmann, The New Republic: We can note immediately that Zilberman has the requisite gifts. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: Engaging, intelligent, but direction doesn't quite live up to a first-rate cast. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: Adultery, unfulfilled ambition, envy, mother-daughter tensions, disease-all the standard and predictable conflicts are there, as in a soap opera. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Unless you're channeling the forgiving spirit of Casals, I'm afraid this one hits too many off notes to recommend. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: Minor but satisfying ... Read more

Linda Holmes, NPR: Ultimately, while the performances are very good, the script could have stood a little more restraint. Read more

Lou Lumenick, New York Post: Yaron Zilberman, a documentarian making his feature debut, treads a fine line between farce and drama ... Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: Yes, A Late Quartet is disappointing. But it's also pretty bad. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "A Late Quartet" does one of the most interesting things any film can do. It shows how skilled professionals work. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Grace notes abound in A Late Quartet, a small, shining gem of a movie that works its way into your heart with insinuating potency of music. Walken's performance is heartbreaking, and a master class in the craft of acting. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: For those willing to enter this world and pay attention, "A Late Quartet" provides distinct and uncommon satisfactions. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: An auspicious feature debut for a director whose sensitivity to emotional harmonies is as rewarding as his reverence for timeless, transcendent music. Read more

Globe and Mail: Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: The screenplay by Seth Grossman and Israeli-American director Yaron Zilberman is old-fashioned and melodramatic but stirring in its portrait of people struggling with individual egos to produce something nobler than themselves. Read more

Bruce Demara, Toronto Star: [It] may not sound like a scintillatingly good time at the movies, but actually it is. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: If you're in the mood to mix highbrow trappings with some bitter arguments, infidelity and face-slapping, screenwriters Yaron Zilberman (who also directs) and Seth Grossman keep things allegro con brio throughout. Read more

Tom Huddleston, Time Out: The result is a perfectly serviceable, well acted melodrama - but why so serious? Read more

Keith Uhlich, Time Out: The four leads more often than not transcend the material's calculated moroseness; Ivanir is especially good as a man whose perfectionist facade masks a soul in perpetual turmoil. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: The outstanding ensemble cast keeps the story - and its accompanying emotional heft - from becoming overly baroque. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: A skillfully performed drama that treats the varieties of musical expression as an effective if unsubtle metaphor for a person's many possible pathways through life. Read more

Michael Nordine, Village Voice: Zilberman is at his best when leaving narrative threads hanging rather than trying to tie them together. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: The movie is haut-bourgeois to the bone, but so am I: Let's hear some chamber music and have a little laugh and a cry! Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A half-glass of a movie, full of superlative performances and sublime music but empty when it comes to a story rife with melodrama and trite plot conventions. Read more