something for everyone

Rating: 9/10 (27 June 1999)

The basically simple storyline of this film is given a fresh twist by dividing it into historical segments, and showing them intercut with contemporary shots at an auction house, where the full story is slowly revealed through scientific research, and with other shots of a fortune teller predicting the life of a young mother-to-be. What the mother does not know (and the fortune teller can't see in her cards) is that the fortune being told is actually that of a violin. How the mother's fortune got mixed up with that of a violin is revealed only at the end of the film.
Samuel L. Jackson, always one for lingering facial shots that allow his remarkable ability to display subtile emotion to be fully utilized, turns in a fine performance that holds the film together, and also gives the film an extra kick as his character participates in a bit of premeditated subterfuge (how premeditated is also not apparent until the end) that gives another nice twist to the film and really helps to advance the character of the plot through the ending and beyond; the violin's story is obviously far from complete (here is where Hollywood will often screw up - they will take a film and staple the ending down so that the story has no life, but is rather obviously yet another project of an uninspired writer). Here we see that the contemporary portion of the plot is not an end but only another stage. Not profound perhaps, but compared to usual Hollywood garbage it seems profound.
Throughout the film is fine music, in many styles, depicting the various persons who own the violin (kudos to Joshua Bell, the superb violinist who does all the playing where the red violin is concerned). How the violin affects them, and to a lesser degree, how they affect it, is the work of the great variety between episodes. And they are not all shaped by the same cookie cutter either. Each person is fascinating in their own right, and this would make a fine movie even without the violin (but how else to tie the episodes together so nicely?) And yet, each episode is represented in the contemporary scenes, as it is slowly revealed that the bulk of the bidders in the exclusive Montreal auction house are somehow related to the various historical characters, and wish to recapture the magic that they know once influenced their lives and fortunes.
One more point; in most films where actors pretend to play instruments, it is painfully apparent that they are doing no such thing. My hat is off to the film makers for managing to portray various figures playing complicated music on the violin, in such a way that it is almost always totally convincing, and perfectly matches the sound track. Were the actors selected from expert violin players? Were special effects used? I don't know how, but it worked.
This movie is a costume drama, a suspense film, a history lesson, has a great soundtrack, and no filmgoer should find themselves left out.