A Late Quartet (Yaron Zilberman, 2012)

An acclaimed string quartet begins to disintegrate after decades of success when one of their number discovers that he has Parkinson's and must retire. This indirectly precipitates the break-up of the marriage between two of the other performers and their falling out with the fourth member, who has started an affair with their daughter. All the ingredients of a soapy pot-boiler are there, and the film would probably not be held together by its reliance on wistful cutaways of snowy New York streets or soulful renditions of Beethoven, so it's fortunate that in the scenes where the material is strong, there is not only Philip Seymour Hoffman but Christopher Walken to call on. Hoffman does great self-pity, but this time Walken really steals the show as the man facing imminent physical decay with stoicism.

6/10