Performance: Movie Review

Performance: Movie Review

Cast: Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Imogen Poots, Mark Ivanir
Director: Yaron Zilberman

Movies are sometimes like buses - you wait ages for one of its ilk, then suddenly two of a kind show up.

So it is with Performance, aka A Late Quartet - and December's Quartet from Dustin Hoffman. Both films centre on a quartet with issues and both have a Hoffman involved.

In the latest, it's a Seymour Hoffman as Philip who plays Robert, one quarter of the aforementioned quartet. They've been together 25 years and when founding member Peter (Walken in a sombre role) announces to the group he has Parkinson's Disease and must retire, it throws the cat among the pigeons for the remaining members.

Not only is there the grief of what lies ahead, but also simmering tensions between Robert, wife Juliette (Keener) and Daniel (Lerner) come boiling to the surface. Throw in the fact that Robert and Juliette's daughter Alexandra (Poots) is tempestuous to say the least, and it's a potent mix of relationships, resentments and Beethoven.

Performance is a reflective character piece, which borders on the maudlin at times. However, it's very solidly and convincingly acted by the cast who are totally committed to what director Zilberman brings to the table. The music and stunning scenery plays second fiddle to the issues blighting the group and despite the refined settings of the film, there's a certain classiness to what the actors bring to the screen.

But there's also a distance and aloofness which proves difficult to the engagement despite the actors. Walken provides a haunting face to the stricken Peter, Hoffman is a powerful figure whose underplaying of the role is fast becoming a trademark of everything he does. Keener adds a dignity to the conflicted emotions she feels and Poots is all arrogance as the young daughter.

Occasionally melodramatic and self centred, there's a vulnerability to Performance which may strike more of a chord with some than I confess it did with me.

Rating: