"Pause...take a breath."

At first you might expect A Late Quartet to be about the music. There is certainly plenty of it to go around. The film even manages to convince us that Christopher Walken is a renowned cello player even though we all know what he can do with a pocket watch. Yeah, you caught yourself smiling there, even if you'd like to believe you're above such things. It demonstrates the real strength of the film. It's not the music. It's a rather surprising and convincing collection of performances, this is true. But it's the thespian art that is truly on display in this rather intimate drama.

There’s an old showbiz adage warning performers to “never work with children or animals.” There’s also an impressive list of legendary filmmakers — including Steven Spielberg and James Cameron — who struggled mightily to make water-based blockbusters like Jaws and Titanic. (That list also includes somewhat less legendary names like Kevin Reynolds and Waterworld.) Apparently, no one told Ang Lee any of this before he agreed to make Life of Pi.

Like Cloud Atlas, Life of Pi is a recent big-screen adaptation of a best-selling book considered by many to be unfilmable. The list of Oscar-nominated directors who reportedly took a crack at Life of Pi over the years includes M. Night Shyamalan (The Sixth Sense), Alfonso Cuaron (Children of Men) and Jean-Pierre Jeunet (Amelie).

"Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation, so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this..."

These were strong words, and the man who spoke them was certainly a dominant figure in American history. He's been portrayed hundreds of times on film and television. Rarely have any of these efforts been able to capture the true essence of a great man. You can't blame the actors or the production teams. There are those tasks which some say just can't be done. Lincoln heard those arguments himself. I'm sure that Steven Spielberg must have been haunted by the same thoughts when he set out to do Lincoln. Fortunately, he found another remarkable man who was up to the task. If Daniel Day-Lewis does not get the Oscar for his performance as Abraham Lincoln, then I propose the Academy close its doors forever. We might well believe that all men are created equal. It's a true enough axiom. That doesn't mean that all men possess equal ability in all things. Just two hours with Daniel Day-Lewis and you'll find the point well illustrated.