Quartet, an ensemble geezer comedy, is really an excuse for four brilliant actors (Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Tom Courtenay, Pauline Collins) to show their chops. It’s set in a retirement home for retired musicians. The residents are preparing for an annual benefit performance, and the long-estranged ex-wife of a resident is moving in.
The most interesting character is the one played by Pauline Collins – a vivacious woman who may have always been ditzy and now has very little short-term memory. In 1996, Collins won a Tony and was nominated for an Oscar for the title role in Shirley Valentine.
Tom Courtenay plays a man still devastated by a bad breakup decades before. There’s a wonderful scene in which he explains opera to a class of working class teens by comparing it to rap. Courtenay is best known for The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner (1962), Dr. Zhivago (1965), The Dresser (1983), but was excellent more recently in the overlooked Last Orders (2001).
Maggie Smith and Billy Connolly are very good in familiar roles. The irrepressible Connolly is very funny as a particularly randy old gentleman. Smith’s character is in her sweet spot – not unlike the sharp-edged but increasingly vulnerable gals she played in Gosford Park, Downton Abbey and The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. The actors playing the other residents are delightful, including a passel of opera stars from the 70s and 80s, Sinatra’s European trumpet player and more.
This is the first movie directed by Dustin Hoffman, and he did an able job. He takes advantage of the beautiful pastoral location, paces the film well and, as one would expect, enables the actors to turn in very fine performances. Quartet is just a lark, but not a bad way to spend an hour and a half.
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