Having spent nearly half-a-century in front of camera as an undisputed screen icon, Dustin Hoffman makes his directorial debut with this charming and joyful dramatic comedy about a group of Opera singers whose easy life is thrown into disarray by a new arrival at their bucolic retirement home.
Lifelong friends, Reggie (Tom Courtenay), Cissy (Pauline Collins) and Wilf (Billy Connolly) live in the beautiful Beecham House with other retirees from the music world, planning their annual Verdi concert with stage director Cedric (Michael Gambon) in order to raise vital funds for the home. With the arrival of Jean (Maggie Smith), the fourth and most famous of their quartet, the group must resolve old differences in time for the concert.
With such a glorious stage and such wonderful players, Hoffman and Cinematographer John De Borman (An Education) show great restraint in allowing these elements to shine, refraining from directorial flourishes that may have distracted or diminished. As such we are treated to a plethora of screen greats operating at the top of their game.
