What a sad shock to hear that Philip Seymour Hoffman had died. What an actor we lost that day. I don't know about the rest of you but he was one of my favorites and no matter what the movie was, he was always good. Sometimes he was extraordinary, sometimes great but always good.
I had on my library list this movie, "A Late Quartet" for several weeks before his death. Ironically, I picked it up just a day or two after he died. It's a small movie, made in 2012. Four musicians face the break-up of their world-famous quartet which has been playing together for more than 20 years. Hoffman is the second violin, his wife Catherine Keener plays the viola, Christopher Walken plays the cello and Mark Ivanir plays the first violin. It was amazing to see Walken in this role, he is usually rather crazed and often borders on being a sociopath. He's very subdued in this film. But all four actors are excellent. They are so connected to each other and to their musical history that this impending end of what has held them together for so long wrecks havoc with each of them in very personal ways.
Hoffman is brilliant here. Quiet and determined, focused and yet almost insecure, he is a master actor to watch. It is worth the entire movie just to see the scene in the taxi, which lasts just a couple of minutes. Watch his face. Watch his body language throughout the entire film. So much is given to the audience without him even saying a word.
I wish we could have had him for another 40 years.
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