After her acting career started in over 50 years ago, Dustin Hoffman debut in directorial segment with dramedia with musical elements “Quartet“, which was awarded by The Weinstein Company in May, but has not set a release date in North American theaters in the UK to be screened on the day of January 4, 2013.
The unexpected commercial success of the senior stars “The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel”, from which Fox Searchlight won U.S. $ 122.61 million worldwide, made the Hollywood producers to try their luck again with a film whose protagonists are Maggie Smith, Billy Connolly, Pauline Collins, Tom Courtenay and Michael Gambon. The “Quartet” seems the right choice, even if the double Oscar winner Dustin Hoffman addresses rather to parents and grandparents.
According to JoBlo.com, playwright Ronald Harwood signed script is inspired by a play of its namesake and follows two friends of a lifetime, Wilf and Reggie (Billy Connolly and Tom Courtenay), who withdrew with former Cissy their colleagues (Pauline Collins) in a nursing home for retired opera singers.
Every year, Beecham House is celebrating the birthday of composer Giuseppe Verdi with a charity concert, funds raised on this occasion is used for maintenance and upgrading of asylum.
Plans of residents are turned upside down by unexpected arrival of Jean Horton (Maggie Smith), former wife of Reggie and the fourth member of the quartet consisting of Reggie, Wilf and Cissy, a former prima donna with more games and diva behavior always enjoyed more acclaim than her colleagues. Jean has a nasty temper and a reputation as a difficult and unbearable people, so nobody is surprised when the undeniable star of the quartet refuses to play the annual concert held in Beecham House.
