Quartet -- January 2013

GROWING OLDER JOYFULLY

There are other things certain in life besides death and taxes. One of them is aging. We will all grow older, and most of us probably want to age gracefully and finish our race as well as we can. Older age is beset with potential fears and problems, however. Will there be anyone around to take care of us? Will our health be good? Will we have interesting things to do in our golden years? Will we have friends? Wouldn't it be nice, for instance, to live in a classy retirement home named something like, say, Beecham House, with people who did the same thing in their careers that we did?

This is the premise of Quartet, a new movie directed by Dustin Hoffman and starring British actors Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, and Pauline Collins, along with British mansion Hedson House in the role of Beecham House. Beecham is a beautiful (fictional) restored retirement domicile for retired musicians in the countryside not far from London. The individuals who live there come from all sorts of musical walks – e.g., instrumentalists, writers, and opera singers.

Three of the residents are members of the quartet from the opera Rigoletto in its heyday on the London stage. Reginald, Wilf, and Cissy (Courtenay, Connolly, and Collins) are comfortable in their life at Beecham until, that is, the advent of Jean (Smith), the fourth member of the Rigoletto quartet and a diva first class. Jean is bitter about aging and won't even talk to anyone when she first arrives. Reginald, in particular, is not happy about her coming, as he and Jean were once in a marriage that ended unhappily.

Jean's arrival just happens to coincide with Beecham's yearly fundraising concert, in which the residents of Beecham will put on a musical extravaganza in an attempt to keep the home afloat financially. It's obvious to everyone at Beecham (as well as to us, the viewers) that Jean will have to join Reginald, Wilf, and Cissy in once again singing the quartet from Rigoletto. The only trouble is getting Reginald and Jean to go along with the idea. Jean says she won't sing again, and Reginald doesn't want to forgive Jean for leaving him for another man. Meanwhile, adding to the confusion, Wilf can't keep himself from trying to put the move on every female he finds (he never does, though), and Cissy seems to be struggling with the beginnings of dementia.

Quartet is about many things: teaching others, communication and friendship, and growing older gracefully. Above all, it’s about forgiveness and redemption. It's not a Christian movie specifically, but the resolution of the conflict is consistent with Christian values. The actors perform superbly: Maggie Smith is stellar; similarly, Courtenay, Connolly, and Collins are standouts. From all indications, the cast was very happy with Dustin Hoffman in his directorial debut. The only real negatives are some language issues: a couple of uses of the f-word, the s-word, and some instances of taking the Lord's name in vain.

Bottom Line: If you can get past the unfortunate language, you'll probably enjoy this picture a great deal. Especially pleasing is the film's backdrop with its focus on beautiful, well-performed music. Not for children.

Film Rating: PG-13.

My Rating: 3 stars.