From NetFlix:

Tempers flare, old jealousies reignite and new passions are sparked when the members of a world-renowned string quartet are preparing to celebrate their 25th anniversary and learn that their leader must step down due to a grim medical diagnosis.

Do not confuse this film with another 2012 film entitled “Quartet” which features Maggie Smith and others.

Beethoven’s Opus 131 String Quartet belongs to the set of 6 string quartets known as his “late quarrtets”. Thus the name of this film. Moreover the film centers around the professional quartet with the name “The Fugue” getting ready to perform Beethoven’s Opus 131. For the first movement of his Opus 131 (consisting of 7 connected movements with no break between movements) Beethoven wrote a fugue which is a polyphonic (many voiced) musical form heavily used by the composer Bach. Thus the name of the professional quartet.

Christopher Walken, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Catherine Keener are familiar actors to us all. However the first violinist Daniel Lerner was played by Mark Ivanir who was for me a new face. His first major role was in Spielberg’s “Schindler’s List”.

Clash of personalities is indeed the force behind the story. But of equal importance is the fact that the cellist (Christopher Walken) starts to suffer from Parkinson’s disease. Needless to say he cannot continue to play cello with the quartet. So amidst the other players’ fighting he struggles to keep the quartet alive.

Acting is wonderful in this drama. You will probably enjoy this film more if you are a fan of classical music (or even better a fan of Beethoven’s “Late Quartets”). Throughout, the background music is classical and appropriate.

Hopefully many of you will enjoy this well-done film.