Quartet

Tuesday 3rd February 2015

Director: Dustin Hoffman
Year: 2012
Stars: Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Michael Gambon, Sheridan Smith

Another movie that was shown at New Year, this one took a little longer for me to watch as it was just a bit less appealing. I hadn't really heard of it previously, but it sounded like it could be interesting (or it must have done to me when I chose to record it, otherwise why did I bother? To be fair, that's a question I am now pondering).

Not a lot really happens in Quartet. Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), a retired musician, turns up at an old people's home for musicians, which causes some unsettling amongst the residents. You're meant to care what her back story is, but you can basically already figure it out, and the big 'reveal' ten minutes before the end of the movie is so obvious and bland that if you've lasted this long waiting for it, you're going to be grossly disappointed.

In hindsight, I really have no idea why I recorded this movie. It's dull, grating and full of one-dimensional characters. I would claim they're stereotypical, but they're not well written enough characters to achieve that.Quartet is everything that The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel threatened to be, and thankfully completely avoided. Watch that instead.

Rating: 1 out of 5