This intelligent and nuanced exploration of unconventional friendship is the setting for one of the best films about music that I've seen in a long time. Like the elderly piano teacher Mrs. Kruger (Monica Bleitbreu) who cares only for music, the picture holds it in priority as well as it offers some of the most impressive piano-playing sequences to be seen since The Legend of 1900 (Giuseppe Tornatore, 1998). Due to the incarcerated nature of the film's second protagonist Jenny (Hannah Herzsprung), we are privy to a prison-picture as well, the liberating aspect of music being emphasized as we are constantly shifting between the soothing beauty of its sound and the disturbing ugliness of the walls in which it is practiced. The nature of the relationship between student and teacher is respectfully presented, given more meaning and understanding through momentary flashbacks into Kruger's past that illuminate her life's void which, before meeting Jenny, could only be filled through her music. As it deals with matters of loyalty, family and regrets, 4 Minutes always stays in key and plays with intensity, ultimately creating one memorable cinematic symphony
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