The Red Violin (5 Stars)

When it comes to this film I feel inclined to just say two words: Watch It!

This is a brilliant film, one of the best that I've ever seen, but the problem is that I don't know how to make it interesting by describing the plot. If I just tell you what happens it will sound boring and you won't watch it, you'll miss out on this cinematic masterpiece. But let's try anyway:

Samuel L. Jackson plays Charles Mauritz, an expert in musical instruments who travels from New York to Canada to value instruments for an auction. While there he discovers a red violin which has travelled from country to country, changing the lives of everyone who played it. The film tells the story of the violin from its origins in Italy through Austria, England and China to Canada. The recurring theme is that death and suffering accompany the violin wherever it goes. In the end Mauritz's interest in the violin becomes more than business and he develops an obsession for the instrument.

It's difficult to say what makes the film a masterpiece. The episodic nature of the film means that just as we start to relate to characters the scene ends and we move on to the next country a hundred years later. The film is unusual, like nothing I've ever seen before. Samuel L. Jackson is my favorite actor, as my regular readers will already know, and in this film he delivers one of his finest performances. He plays a quiet intellectual who suppresses his emotions, but when his feelings come to the surface the richness of his character overflows.

Watch it!