On the threshold of its 25th anniversary concert, the renowned Fugue String Quartet finds itself on the verge of dissolution, as its members begin to bow under the tension between personal goods and the good of the group (namely, the music that it makes). If the script is occasionally indulgent in its neat comparisons between music and life (the titular quartet may refer to the Fugue, or to the work they’re performing, Beethoven’s Opus 131), and if the performances are sometimes surprisingly muted for such a dynamite cast (Christopher Walken, Catherine Keener, Philip Seymour Hoffman), the story is fine enough to carry things along, comfortable with its dense array of crises, complications, and possible interpretations. Mark Ivanir, perhaps the least celebrated of the actors involved, shines as the chilly perfectionist in the first violin chair. Nearly everything he says can be taken as either the dictates of an egoist or the professions of a disciple. Directed and co-written by Yaron Zilberman. (2012) — Matthew Lickona
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