At a home for retired opera singers, the annual concert to celebrate Verdi's birthday is disrupted by the arrival of Jean, an eternal diva and the former wife of one of the residents.
It’s polished enough entertainment with a few cheeky laughs, but odd that Hoffman, once a leading light of the groundbreaking New Hollywood cinema, should make a film so safe and peculiarly British.
Very few people embark on a new career at 75 but the warm, engaging Quartet proves that Dustin Hoffman is a director of considerable promise.
Dustin Hoffman squanders a high-grade cast in a stale directorial debut about a group of retirement-home singers.
Safe, cosy tragi-comedy.
The plot carries few surprises and at times the picture feels a little too safe for its own good. More grit, comedy and raw emotion in the vein of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel would have helped pack more of a dramatic punch.
The result is a smoothly crafted, inoffensive movie that makes use of top-drawer British treasures. Maybe there’s an older audience out there which also feels under-served and in need of tempered optimism and a spiritual tune-up.
A frothy and often charming directorial effort from Hoffman, his first in a Hollywood career that's spanned five decades, that will keep Downton fans happy.
There’s a gentle, sugared honesty in Quartet about old age: it stops short of anything too testing or tragic. This is a lot closer to The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2012) than it is to Amour (2012), and the only final curtain here is made of heavy, red velvet.
Given the talent in front of and behind the camera, it’s a shame that Quartet is yet another pandering OAP drama that explores the vicissitudes of old age with the same kind of broad, patronising tone that won The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel large box-office grosses and baffling amounts of critical acclaim.
There is a great film to be made about ageing. There are great actors to play in it. Are there writers up for a challenge?
A scattering of small, lovely moments, but hardly setting the screen alight, especially with its cop-out ending.
Moving, amusing and truthful, the film is a modest, not unduly sentimental work that touches in a light but far from slight way on subjects that will eventually be faced by all of us.
A winning formula perhaps, but not necessarily a memorable one.
Quartet comes across at times as Luvvie Central, where, for all the clear-eyed attitudes to ageing, sentimentality is never far away. It is still a refreshing change, though.
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General release. Check local listings for show times.