Quartet (2012) 5/10

Starring : Maggie Smith, Tom Courtenay, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins
Director : Dustin Hoffman
Running Time : 99 mins

In a retirement home for musicians, a trio of retired musicians, Reggie (Courtenay), Wilf (Connolly) and Cissy (Collins), are eager to prepare for the annual concert held in honour of Verdi’s birthday, but when Reggie’s ex-wife Jean (Smith) arrives in the home, they find their equilibrium thrown off kilter, and when she proves to be the same old diva that Reggie broke up with, things take a very uncomfortable turn.

I expected this movie to be something along the lines of The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, but instead I was faced with 100 minutes of dull melodrama with little or no comic relief to speak of. The plot is so far beyond anything I could actually care about that I felt myself zoning out and not even paying attention to what little was going on. The characters were dull and unimaginative, and a terrible waste considering the acting talents that were on offer.

You’ll like this if you liked : The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel