“Quartet”

 

Directed by Dustin Hoffman

With Maggie Smith, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connelly, and Michael Gambon.

 

“Quartet” may deal with the struggles of aging, but it actually turns out to be a celebration of life. This touching and fun film looks at a group of elderly musicians who live in the elegant, but slightly decaying Beecham House situated in the pastoral English countryside. Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this film, which shows it is never to late to begin a new chapter in life…. for him at age 75 or for his characters.

The storyline is simple. The residents of Beecham House are trying to put a show together, a fund raiser to save their beloved residence, which has fallen on hard times. They are to put on a concert to honor the birthday of Giuseppe Verdi.

Wilfred Bond (Billy Connelly) is an outspoken wit, a flirt, a man who never fails to inject sexual innuendo at any opportunity. Reference is made to a stroke he has suffered. Reginald (Tom Courtenay, his old friend) is a reserved and proper gentleman. The ever-kind and energetic Cecily Robeson (Pauline Collins) loves life, but is beginning to suffer dementia. All three were famed opera singers, but those days are over long ago.

The Beecham house residents are all atwitter because a new resident is arriving. Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a diva extraordinaire, is surely the most renowned of all of them. A feisty woman of huge ego and an aura of superiority, she refuses to take part in the planned gala performance. Her voice isn’t what it used to be and she has a bad hip. She and the courtly Reginald were once married until she was unfaithful to him. He has never forgiven her. This is the main conflict of “Quartet.” He refuses to acknowledge her and she snubs him.

“Quartet” examines life for the retired Beecham residents years after the applause has ended. The film deals with the unhappy challenges of aging. It seems as if every one of them has an ailment to overcome. Dustin Hoffman makes it all work. Far from being depressing, “Quartet” is fresh and vital. Most characters in the film are, in reality, one-time musicians or singers. They do a terrific job.

Like the “Best Exotic Marigold Hotel,” “Quartet” is a film that includes senior actors at the top of their game. It is a satisfying and sweet fairytale for seniors. However, younger viewers will also relate to it: They have aging parents, grandparents, and aunts and uncles. And the show must go on for all of us. I suppose some viewers may find “Quartet” predictable and the ending too Hollywood. Who cares? I didn’t.