Quartet, Toronto Film Festival - review

 
12 October 2012

Dustin Hoffman's first film as director, set in "Beecham House", a grand British retirement home for musicians and handsomely furnished with grand British actors, including Maggie Smith, Michael Gambon, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins and Billy Connolly (comically lubricious to the end, commending the older man to a young nurse as "vintage wine, seasoned wood") The bit parts are very touchingly played by real retired musicians - the old are truly old in a film, for once.

Beecham House is putting on a gala concert to riase the funds it needs to survive, the highlight being the quartet from Rigoletto. But will new resident, retired prima donna Jean (Smith) come out of retirement and sing again with her embittered one-time husband Reggie (Courtenay)?

Expertly scripted by Ronald Harwood, this movie makes a superb grande dame showcase and Maggie Smith seizes the opportunity, snubbing away and bringing down the house with the occasional perfectly enunciated obscenity. Hoffman has a gentle hand with his ancient cast and a doting eye for the English country house. At its Toronto premiere, director and cast in attendance, the crowd went crazy for it. Why resist?

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in