A LATE QUARTET

A powerhouse cast—Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Catherine Keener and Mark Ivanir—brings vivid life to Yaron Zilberman's engrossing drama about an illustrious string quartet that is on the verge of celebrating their twenty-fifth season as an ensemble with an ambitious recital of Beethoven's Late String Quartets. While this milestone would seem to be cause for celebration, it soon becomes a flashpoint for the members' assorted personal traumas and the tangled web of jealousy, envy, ambition, and deeply felt affection that binds the group together. As the ensemble's aging patriarch, Walken has never been better. Not to be outdone, the rest of the cast rise to Walken's challenge, and Zilberman (who co-wrote the screenplay with Seth Grossman) never missteps, guiding us gracefully through those painful inevitabilities of aging and change that contrast so movingly with the timeless beauty of music.

“Featuring endearing performances…the film mines both the relationship issues and the Upper East Side neighborhoods of Woody Allen’s best work.” —Jordan Mintzer, Hollywood Reporter