A superb masterpiece.

Rating: 9/10 (12 April 2001)

A truly remarkable film, I was almost tempted to award it a perfect 10. The only thing that prevented me from doing so was remembering the advice of my old English teacher (Doug "Fundamentally" Hounsell) that only God can be perfect. Thus I never award 10 out of 10 for anything. Anyway, I digress. This film deserves a whole flock of superlative epithets. From its very start to the shocking denouement I was transfixed. It had been languishing in my video recorder for at least a fortnight waiting for the opportunity for a late-night viewing. By then, I had forgotten what it was supposed to be about, which made it all the more enjoyable. Only the inconvenience of having to fast-forward through the adverts disturbed my viewing of a piece of craftsmanship that stood comparison with its subject, a 17th century Italian violin. Why can't Hollywood make films like this anymore?