FIFTY SHADES OF GREY (QUARTET)

Hot on the heels of Michael Haneke's 'Amour' comes another movie about ageing.

But whereas Haneke's French movie was tough and uncompromising, Dustin Hoffman's first movie as a director, 'Quartet' is soft centred and very English.

Adapted for the big screen by Ronald Harwood from his play which ran for four months in London's West End starring Alec McCowan, Stephanie Cole and Donald Sinden, 'Quartet' is set in a retirement home for mostly classical singers and musicians.

At the beginning of the movie we see Michael Gambon's egotistical and cranky retired opera director, Cedric bossing fellow residents about as they prepare for their annual fundraising concert to keep Beecham House running for another year.

Among his troupe are Billy Connolly's old rogue Wilf who has suffered a stroke and still has an eye for the ladies, Pauline Collins' charming but flighty Cissy and Tom Courtenay's gentleman tenor, Reginald who passes the time by holding lectures for young people on opera.

All the residents are under the care of Sheridan Smith's Dr Lucy Cogan and her team of nurses including newcomer Eline Powell's pouty French girl Angelique - both of whom the impish Wilf mercilessly flirts with.

The relative harmony of Beecham House is suddenly disturbed when Maggie Smith's acclaimed opera singer Jean Horton is admitted under a veil of secrecy.

Not only does the prima donna struggle initially with settling into the retirement home but it brings her face to face with Reginald, one of her three ex husbands, who is still bitter about her infidelity which destroyed their marriage.

When Cedric comes up with the idea of reuniting Wilf, Cissy, Reginald and Jean's renowned Aria singing quartet so they can charge Covent Garden style prices at the concert, the question is posed whether Smith can overcome her pride about performing while ageing takes its toll?

'Quartet' is a 'steady as he goes' directorial debut from Dustin Hoffman.

Cinematographer John de Borman's camera paces around the cast but there is nothing flamboyant about his work. 

Musical montage sequences are competently edited by Barney Pilling and Hedsor House in Buckinghamshire, which provided the location for the retirement home, is handsomely dressed by art director Ben Smith and set director Sarah Whittle.

However this is very much an actor's movie, with Hoffman keen to let his cast loose on Harwood's script.

A long admirer of Billy Connolly's stand-up, he allows the 70-year-old Glaswegian to improvise and play Wilf with a real twinkle in his eye.

Tom Courtenay's Reginald is performed with admirable dignity and Maggie Smith does the shtick we all know she can do very well - the disapproving but vulnerable diva.

But if there is one member of the quartet who really stands out, it is Pauline Collins who turns in a sensitive, yet typically vivacious performance as Cissy who is gradually succumbing to dementia.

It's a shame in one respect for Hoffman, Harwood and the cast that 'Quartet' should hit cinema screens so soon after Haneke's withering meditation on old age in 'Amour'.

The bravery of Haneke's two principal actors - especially Emanuelle Riva's powerful portrayal in 'Amour' of a woman sliding towards death - only serves to highlight the safeness of Hoffman and Harwood's venture.

There are brief reminders in 'Quartet' that the residents of Beecham are in decline - a clarinetist is stretchered away by paramedics to hospital during breakfast - but this is not meant to be a hard hitting film like Haneke's.

A much fairer measuring stick would be John Madden's 2012 box office smash 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' which reaped box office gold with its humorous take on ageing and its culture clash between English middle class mores and the new India.

'Quartet' shares one cast member from Madden's excellent movie - Maggie Smith - and aspires to the same humour.

But even by this measuring stick, Hoffman's film seems too tame.

'Quartet'  has the feeling of a Sunday night pre-watershed television comedy drama  - the presence of sitcom stalwarts like Andrew Sachs (Manuel from 'Fawlty Towers'), Trevor Peacock (Jim Trott from 'The Vicar of Dibley') and the excellent David Ryall (Grandad in 'Outnumbered') only accentuates this.

Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with genteel comedy, especially when your mood requires it, and the three of these comedy veterans turn in decent performances.

However, given the track record of most of the people involved in this film, you expect something more demanding.

Harwood's script hits a few bum notes - a scene where Reginald compares and contrasts opera to hip hop during one of his lectures is a bit like watching your grandad dancing to Jay Z.

And if there is one disappointment in the acting department, it is the normally reliable Michael Gambon's eccentric, hammy and rather shouty turn as Cedric.

BBC Films will no doubt be hoping that 'Quartet' coaxes back into cinemas the grey pound that turned 'The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel' into a surprise international box office hit (it grossed $134 million worldwide on a $10 million budget).

But if 'Quartet' struggles in cinemas, it will only prove ageing audiences want more demanding films.

('Quartet' opened at the Queen's Film Theatre and other UK and Ireland cinemas on January 1, 2013)

(This review originally appeared on the EamonnMallie.com website in January 2013)