The famous Nicolo Bussoti violin is being auctioned off in Montreal, and we are taken through the story of how it travelled throughout the world and made a name for itself through its owners throughout history.

This movie is one of those films that is driven by a genuinely interesting story. There are so many actors in this film, but the real top billing actor is the violin and we never see anyone unless they are interacting with the violin, which is a great storytelling technique that entranced me for the two hours running time.

This is truly an international film. We see Italy, Vienna, Oxford, Shanghai and also Montreal. The film begins in Italy in 1681 and ends in Montreal in 1997. It is nothing more than beauty and culture to see the story take place across all these historical points in all of these great looking and cultural places across of Europe and Asia. For it to end up in Montreal in a pile of random instruments for sale and be discovered by a restoration artist is just a great point of the film.

If I had to give my favourite part of this film would have to be the section in Vienna with the young orphan, Kaspar Wiess [Christoph Koncz]. This orphan is raised in a monastery and after he shows some talent with the violin an instructor, Georges Poussin [Jean-Luc Bideau], is called in by the monks to see the boy. Poussin takes in the child and starts to teach him in order to have him ready for an audition for the aristocrats of the town. I felt like the child – even though he didn’t speak much – showed such emotion that you couldn’t help but connect with him. I wasn’t sure whether to feel happy for Kaspar or pity him, because he was worked hard during his lessons, but you knew that he wasn’t more pleased than when he was playing the violin. And the ending to this segment couldn’t help but make me shed a tear or two, definitely one of the most emotional pieces of the film.

However, if I was to give my favourite segment which gave you so much character development for the actual violin I would have to respond with the Oxford leg of the trip. Frederick Pope [Jason Flemyng] is a famous composer and has a reinvigorated passion for the violin when he discovers the instrument through some squatters on his land. He is having a very physical relationship with Victoria Byrd [Greta Scacchi], and this is a mutually beneficial relationship which is used to hone each of their artistic inspirations. I personally think that the scene between Flemyng and Scacchi where he seduces her with his playing and they end up having sex without him stopping from playing is amazing. It made me begin to believe that the violin had some extra special ‘magical’ power, and I wanted to learn how to play the violin.

The other segments definitely were good, but not as great as the other three. I definitely felt that Sam Jackson’s segment – the Montreal segment – was the least inspiring. Where all the segments gave us some insight into the creation of the legend of ‘The Red Violin’, this piece gave us absolutely no connection to the violin other than possibly respect and fandom. It was also the most frustrating since after almost 100 minutes of great acting and story we get the regular Sam Jackson that we know being loud and sometimes ridiculously rude just because he’s a ‘badass muthafucka’. I almost felt like they should’ve written the auction in somewhere in Eastern Europe and kept the film enjoyably international and as far from Hollywood as possible.

Overall this is a great film and if you like period pieces you will probably enjoy it. I think the best element of the film has to be the music. If you enjoy classical music this movie is filled with great violin pieces that make you want to pick up one of those little sticks that you see classical conductors swing around in front of their orchestra.

IMDB says 7.7/10

Rotten Tomatoes says 71%

I say 7.5/10