A bold attempt falls short

Rating: Null/10 (15 June 2004)

I enjoyed the multiple storylines and the way the text interweaves them into the final suspenseful scene of the auction. Most of the film is beautiful and interesting, but it disintegrates when the American actors and English lines take center stage. The spoken text is awkward and stilted. As a result, Samuel L. Jackson is wooden and doesn't seem to have any reason for stealing the violin. He looks neither in love, nor obsessed with an object he supposedly pursued his whole career. At times he has sudden outburst as if the actor suddenly remembered he was supposed to be at the end of his wits. At other times you can almost hear him saying: "I can't believe I'm even saying these lines, somebody please rescue me from this film." I could have easily believed Jackson in this role, but the dialogue and his mistrust for it makes it impossible. Rent the video, and stop the film before he and his even more wooden co-star start saying things like (paraphrasing for effect): "You don't have children?" "No, but I know what you mean. I just want to take this violin apart." Or: "It's like it's this thing . . ." Also, equally unbelievable is when the violin maker rushes in to see the body of his dead wife, sending everyone, including the nurse holding the dead baby, out of the room. This man was making the perfect violin for this child he wanted so badly, but is completely uninterested in him when his body is presented to him.