Booze and Violins

I signed up for a month trial at Netflix and watched two movies last night.

Flight, with Denzel Washington, was mediocre at best, saying all the right things about the booze life, but I really enjoyed A Late Quartet.  For all the great work Philip Seymour Hoffman did in the latter, I thought Christopher Walken was the big show stopper with his turn as a Parkinson's-afflicted cellist.

PSH didn't quite master the physicality of a violinist when he moved and set up to "play."  He was much better when he got pissed off and punched out the first violinist.  It was as if he had too much respect for the instrument, handling it like a precious goblet.  I wonder if his contract stipulated that if he dropped the thing and broke it he'd buy it?

In reality the producers likely didn't let him touch a 25K Stradivarius.

Hell man, grab that sucker and play it--like someone who has played for decades.

Ironically, that was one of the themes of the story as well--artistic expression can at times be too delicate. Anything close to being real is going to involve risk and have a messy side.


TS