A Late Quartet Reviews
Slant Magazine
Yaron Zilberman's soap opera jettisons character plausibility in favor of pop psychology and leaden instrument analogies.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
We Got This Covered
A Late Quartet features good performers and good dramatic intentions, but is too joyless, unpleasant, and inauthentic in its presentation and discussions of music to make any sort of impact.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4.5/10
Examiner.com
"A Late Quartet" has the start of an interesting idea. However, this film has two major factors that prevent it from achieving [its] goal: an overdose of melodrama and storylines that don't mesh, or even feel like they should be in the same movie.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Fan The Fire
Not without its touching moments, A Late Quartet nevertheless can't truly escape the eye-rolling determinism of its script, with only a pragmatic, wry Christopher Walken truly convincing as a man who has lived inextricably bound with his music.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
This is London
A Late Quartet is slow, talky, and a bit too knowing and explicit.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Top CriticYes, A Late Quartet is disappointing. But it's also pretty bad.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
St. Paul Pioneer Press
A fine idea, poorly executed, it would have been called "Ode to Sorrow" if Beethoven had written it.
Full Review
| Original Score: 1/4
Zilberman's minimalistic approach fits the idea of the film better than it fits the actual film.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
PopMatters
...Zilberman loses focus on the quartet's taut interplay, reverting instead to melodrama.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/10
Little White Lies
Wants to be Bergman, ends up more like a burgundy-hued Sunset Beach.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
7M Pictures
If nothing else, A Late Quartet captures the reality of dealing with professional classical musicians.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/5
Unless you're channeling the forgiving spirit of Casals, I'm afraid this one hits too many off notes to recommend.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Engaging, intelligent, but direction doesn't quite live up to a first-rate cast.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2.5/4
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)
The passion of Beethoven's final major compositions fails to heat up this tepid soap opera.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Cinemalogue.com
A first-rate cast makes some beautiful music in this otherwise shallow and contrived melodrama.
Scotsman
One might expect a film set in the high culture world of classical music to come up with a more sophisticated metaphor for the insecurities of a violinist than having him worry about always playing second fiddle in life.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/5
Mark Reviews Movies
The performances from the leads are strong all around, but they are restricted by the limitations of the multiple, transparent conflicts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
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.
Full Review
| Original Score: 2/4
Hollywood & Fine
There are pleasures to be had...The question is whether those are sufficient to warrant sitting through the rest of it.
