Ivanir, Hoffman, Keener and Walken in A Late Quartet.

In A Late Quartet, a somber, moody and uneven film about chamber music and the dedicated professional musicians who devote their lives to playing it, Christopher Walken takes some getting used to as a renowned cellist with Parkinson’s disease who is forced begrudgingly to end his career as leader of one of the world’s most celebrated string quartets. A far cry from the lurid and sloppy addicts, psychopaths and serial killers he usually plays as though walking in his sleep, it’s not the kind of role I would personally think of as perfect casting for him. Also, the movie is too slow, highbrow and sophisticated to draw the youth market that loves to see Mr. Walken play violent and stoned in trash like Seven Psychopaths. But playing the cello is such a pleasant change of pace that he eventually grows on you, scene by scene, proving for the first time since his role as Leonardo DiCaprio’s troubled father 10 years ago in Catch Me If You Can, that he really can act. He—along with the rest of the elegant cast—keeps A Late Quartet in tune when it threatens to go flat. 

The Fugue, a famous ensemble much like the Guarneri Quartet, has been filling concert halls for 25 years. It consists of cellist-concertmaster Peter Mitchell (Mr. Walken), first violinist Daniel Lerner (Mark Ivanir), second violinist Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and Robert’s wife, Juliette (Catherine Keener), on viola. As the new season begins, they are rehearsing all seven movements of the intricate Beethoven String Quartet, Opus 13. As soon as you realize the film runs the length of most chamber music concerts, you might panic at the thought of being forced to sit through the whole thing. Not to worry. Director Yaron Zilberman soon makes it clear that he is more interested in the emotional upheavals in the lives of the four high-strung musicians than he is in the music they play. It takes a long time to get around to the program they’re rehearsing, and by then you might wish they had started earlier. As soon as Peter’s crippling disease is diagnosed, the theme becomes “Move Over, Beethoven.”

You know it’s coming when Mr. Walken starts stretching his fingers to strengthen the grip on his bow. Clearly his reflexes and coordination are failing. The others, who have been with him for a quarter of a century, look the other way. But this is a pragmatic perfectionist. He starts to plan his farewell concert and seek a replacement. Robert, the second violinist, takes this inopportune time to announce his long-festering resentment of Daniel, the first violinist, who refuses to alternate solos.

The tension grows, opening a floodgate when Peter announces his plan to hire Robert and Juliette’s daughter Alexandra (Imogen Poots), who is a talented and promising cellist on her way to stardom, to replace him. Further complicating the volatility of an already complex situation is the fact that without Robert and Juliette’s knowledge, Alexandra, who feels neglected and ignored by her parents, is sleeping with the sensitive and petulant Daniel, her coach, who years earlier had an affair with Juliette, now causing a rift between mother and daughter. Worse still, Juliette, who never fully committed to her husband, catches Robert working out his frustrations in bed with another woman, and their marriage collapses. What began as an intelligent film about real music (instead of the junk that poisons contemporary rock soundtracks) loses its way and collapses under the weight of a shameless soap opera. With so much sturm und drang,it’s a miracle these musicians ever find the time to play a simple adagio.

Everyone ends up emotionally shredded, with the future of the Fugue Quartet endangered. Like all passionate artists, however, they come to their senses in time to realize that craft comes first and personal lives are a lower priority, and in the final minutes, we at last get around to the Beethoven. The movie sometimes gets stuck in its own awkward groove like a needle on a warped phonograph, but it has its moments. The script, co-written by the director Mr. Zilberman and Seth Grossman, contains technical information about how to construct, polish and cherish a good violin, and the four actors make you believe they actually know how to play their instruments. They skillfully demonstrate how each member of the quartet brings to the table one of the four legs that hold it upright: Mr. Ivanir has enough precision and driving perfectionism for four, Mr. Hoffman adds color and texture, Ms. Keener provides the mournful passion, and Mr. Walken is the patriarch of the group, with the heart, soul and discipline to keep the music balanced. The pileup of romantic entanglements and competitive egos gets in the way of the music, but the soundtrack is glorious, even if it is truncated. The final concert was filmed on the actual stage at the Metroplitan Museum, where the Guarneri Quartet gave its final performance after 45 years together. In A Late Quartet, life imitates art in more ways than one.

rreed@observer.com

A LATE QUARTET

Running Time 105 minutes

Written by Seth Grossman and Yaron Zilberman

Directed by Yaron Zilberman

Starring Philip Seymour Hoffman, Christopher Walken and Catherine Keener

2.5/4

Michael J. Fox (Getty Images)

It is a laughing matter: When Michael J. Fox abruptly left his starring role on ABC's Spin City in  2000, the world was shocked to find out that the actor was suffering from a degenerative brain disorder.

So what better way to mark his return, over a decade later, than with a comedy about a family man with Parkinson's?

NBC announced today that it has ordered 22 episodes of Mr. Fox's new show, which stars  the actor as a family man who struggles with his wife, and three children to keep their heads above water in the sink-or-swim environment of New York City.

It's not a reality show, though Mr. Fox's character will be living with Parkinson's Disease. The yet-to-be-shot series, co-created and  executive produced by  Easy A director Will Gluck and Arrested Development writer Sam Laybourne, was the subject of a vicious bidding war last week, Vulture reported.

NBC's win can be seen as something of a triumph, since  Mr. Fox began his career on the network's Family Ties in 1982. NBC's Chairman of Entertainment Robert Greenblatt said he was thrilled to have Mr. Fox back in the fold:

To bring Michael J. Fox back to NBC is a supreme honor and we are thrilled that one of the great comedic television stars is coming home again. From the moment we met with Michael to hear his unique point of view about this new show, we were completely captivated and on board. He is utterly relatable, optimistic, and in a class by himself, and I have no doubt that the character he will create – and the vivid family characters surrounding him – will be both instantly recognizable and hilarious. Being in business with him is a supreme pleasure.

Mr. Fox also released a statement expressing his eagerness to get in front of the camera again, saying "I’m extremely pleased to be back at NBC with a great creative team and a great show. Bob Greenblatt and all the folks at the network have given me a warm welcome home, and I’m excited to get to work."

Not everyone has such a positive diagnosis for the show. Forbes' Dorothy Pomerantz notes that Mr. Fox fading star power might not be enough to attract the crucial 18-25 demo, who are too young to remember Family Ties.

What Ms. Pomerantz fails to take into account, of course, is the infinite nostalgia power of Back to the Future, as well as that particular demographic's attraction to dark comedy: it's hard to imagine that Mr. Fox's new program as saccharine-sweet...though without a script,  or actually anything besides a bare-bones outline for the untitled program, we wouldn't be placing bets quiet yet.

The 10th New York City gala fund-raiser for the Michael J. Fox Foundation, "A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Cure Parkinson's," certainly ticked all those boxes, but had the added bonus of rocking the house with great music and comedy.

But then, the Michael J. Fox Foundation takes a different approach than other Parkinson's charities. It is committed to getting money into the hands of research physicians and then pushing their discoveries out of the lab and onto pharmacy shelves. Full disclosure: My father has suffered from Parkinson's for more than 20 years, and so I definitely have a stake in a cure for the disease.

Still, it was a great party. The evening began in the Grand Ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria, whose curved white belle époque balconies provided an impressive backdrop for the evening's entertainment. Since the theme of the night was reggae, the tables were loaded with color, right down to the starters of spinach salad and banana chips. High rollers were tempted to get in touch with their inner child by bidding on prizes with glow sticks. It worked--during the auction, the room appeared to be crowded with florescent fireflies (all told, the foundation raised more than $4.7 million).

"We wanted this to be a celebration and not a sob story," founder Michael J. Fox told The Observer. "We loved the idea of reggae because it's fun. Tracy and I also spend time down in Parrot Cay so that might have had something to do with it."

The crowd was moved when Muhammad Ali and his wife, Lonnie, took the stage to receive their share of applause. Although supported by his wife, the boxing superstar was able to walk away from the podium with an athletic grace that belied his condition.

Ryan Reynolds, whose father suffers from PD, didn't appear in person but made a video offering two auction prizes. Details editor Dan Peres and his wife, actress Sarah Wynter were out in support of the event, as were Evelyn Lauder and retired NBA star and early-onset PD sufferer Brian Grant.

At the end of the night, instead of leaping toward the door as soon as the chocolate torte was cleared, guests drifted to the stage to hear the Roots (Jimmy Fallon's late-night band) begin their set. Guests were never more than five feet from the musicians the whole night.

Once they had everyone swaying, the band called up the first musical guest of the night: reggae legend Winston Rodney, better known as "Burning Spear." Burning Spear sang some classic reggae hits, but it was his skill on the bongos the crowd was waiting for. His taut fingers tapped away with the precision of a tennis player constantly hitting the sweet spot.

After a couple of songs, he was joined onstage by UB40 frontman Ali Campbell, who sang "Red, Red Wine," sounding exactly as he had on my cassette tape 20 years ago. By now, the crowd was well warmed up and eager for the next guest to appear--reclusive singer Lauryn Hill. As she has stayed out of the limelight for so long, it wasn't clear if she still had the chops that made her a household name more than 10 years ago.

All doubts were cast aside as she strode onto the stage, radiating power and presence like a warrior returning from battle. She's slim and almost supernaturally beautiful; it's hard to believe, with her Artemis-like figure, that she's the mother of five children, with Bob Marley's fourth son, Rohan. Clad in over-the-thigh, shining black boots and a frock coat, the singer grasped the microphone and said to the hungry crowd, "Let's have a little Bob Marley."

As her soaring voice belted out the familiar tunes, Roots band members "Captain" Kirk Douglas (guitar) and Damon "Tuba Gooding Jr" Bryson (sousaphone) were so overcome by Ms. Hill's presence that they started to jump up and down while simultaneously playing their instruments (which is no mean feat if you are a sousaphonist).

The finale of the evening included Michael J. Fox jumping onstage for a final jam session. The party lasted until after midnight and no one looked at their watch.

See photos of this week's parties.