Quartet

Four friends decide to work together to put on a concert to raise money to prevent the retirement home/orphanage/local theater/etc. from closing down. We haven’t seen this before, have we? Still, based on the high powered cast they assembled here, I had hopes for it. Hope is a beautiful thing. So I was disappointed. The Billy Connolly character seemed first two-dimensional to me and was barely carried off by the comedian;’s natural charm and winning smile. The Cedrick character felt over the top and didn’t add much to the film despite a strong enough performance by the actor. I think the plot and the script let them down, but they soldiered on and made the best of it. Billy Connolly’s character was ironically at his best when he was serious rather than flirting and pushing peoples’ buttons. Pauline Collins managed to be amusing while suffering from bouts of dementia. There were fine moments throughout the movie and the chemistry between the main characters, but it didn’t quite overcome for me the staleness of the plot and lack of depth in a few of the characters. Asa side note, there is a nice gesture during the credits as they reveal that many of the supporting cast have had music careers of their own with a quick display of their then and now pictures and a brief description of their claim to fame.

This is the second "Quartet" film to feature Dame Maggie Smith and I definitely prefer this one! The story is set in a retirement home for musicians and singers, and one that is gearing up for it's annual fund-raising gala as well as for a much anticipated new arrival. It's that latter event that sets the cat amongst the pigeons for the amiable threesome of "Wilf" (Sir Billy Connolly), "Reggie" (Sir Tom Courtenay) and "Cissy" (Pauline Collins - who ought surely to be a dame by now?). The legend that is "Jean Horton" - a veteran of La Scala, duly arrives and it turns out that she (Dame Maggie) used to be married to "Reggie" and now he's a bit upset. Meantime, the gala - under the direction of the flamboyantly hammy "Cedric" (Sir Michael Gambon) is facing a disaster after it's star turn had to pull out. The three friends conclude that the best plan to save their home might be to reconstitute their legendary quarter from "Rigoletto" - but can they all forgive and forget long enough to take to the stage? It's Collins who steals this for me. Her character is a bit of a dippy and good natured amnesiac who serves well as the lynch pin between the flirtatious and cheeky "Wilf" and the more highly-strung divorcees. The writing is funny enough, but it's really the characterisations that work best here. You could easily imagine that places like this exist for people who made a decent enough living when stardom shone, but had little to fall back on as old age crept up on them leaving them isolated and skint. The only true songstress here, Dame Gwyneth Johns, joins in the joke merrily parodying the luvvie-types with gusto and also providing us with a glorious version of her (original) "Vissi d'arte" from "Tosca" too. It's all a bit predictable, sure, but Dustin Hoffman keeps it out of the realms of sentimental cheesiness and everyone here looks like they are having fun making film designed to enjoy rather than over-think.

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Peter McGinn

CinemaSerf