Mark Ivanir (first violin), Philip Seymour Hoffman (second violin), Catherine Keener (viola), and Christopher Walken (cello) make up the highly successful string quartet The Fugue. Walken, who had just lost his wife a year before, develops certain physical symptoms which are diagnosed as onset Parkinson's. He quickly understands what this may mean to his illustrious concert career.
However, his desire to step aside after one more concert opens up a whole Pandora's Box of interpersonal relations, within the group, that have apparently been simmering for a long time. These conflicts threaten to destroy the quartet, who have performed over 3,000 concerts together around the world.
For example, Hoffman now wants to alternate between the first and second violin chair. Ivanir and Keener, who is Hoffman's wife in the movie, had a relationship prior to Keener marrying Hoffman. They "conspire" behind Hoffman's back and try and discourage him from pursuing this. This leads to a big blow-up between Hoffman and Keener and a one night stand with a flamenco dancer that Hoffman is caught at.
Additionally, Hoffman and Keener's daughter, portrayed by the seductive actress Imogen Poots, begins a relationship with the much older Ivanir. This could be the final straw for the quartet's survival.
Will it survive? I'll not spoil it for the viewers.
My main problem with the film, despite its' top notch cast, is in the script, which was co-written by Yaron Zilberman and Seth Grossman. The Israeli Zilberman, in his first major motion picture, also directed the movie.
To me the script got too contrived and melodramatic. The actors were saying their dialogue but I was not able to emotionally attach to the characters, which was disappointing.
The classical music, actually performed by the famed Brentano String Quartet, was of course first rate. The cellist of this group, Nina Lee, actually appeared briefly towards the very end of the film.
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