Francois Girard's Academy Award winning 1998 film The Red Violin is a fascinating portrait of one man's obsession and lust over a single material possession told in a stylish and engrossing manner and set to a truly moving score.

The picture tells the story of Charles Morritz (Samuel L. Jackson), a man who makes a comfortable living as an expert appraiser of rare and antique musical instruments. He's thrilled when he attends an auction held in Montreal and finds up for bid a one of a kind red Nicolas Bussotti violin. As we follow the auction, well timed flashback scenes reveal over the course of centuries the true story behind the supposed rare and valuable specimen and also show how possessing this instrument has affected the lives of all its past owners. Eventually, Morritz learns the truth about the instrument and must decide for himself what to do about it.

Those who only know Samuel L. Jackson from his post Pulp Fiction work, where he's shown a knack for chewing through scenery and overacting, will likely be quite surprised by his very restrained and admirable performance in this film. Granted, he's surrounded by an excellent supporting cast made up by the likes of Don McKeller, Gretta Sacchi, and Jason Flemyng, but Jackson really is excellent in this film particularly when he finds himself forced to decide. He's incredibly believable as Morritz and brings a wonderful sense of both pride and sympathy to the character and as such, really delivers a great performance.

While the plot may sound overly simple, almost like a musical version of Paddle To The Sea, this simplicity is actually quite suspenseful. McKellar and Girard's script keeps us guessing as to how this violin will affect people in the next scene and also as to its true origins. Predictions made in the past can and do come true in fascinating ways years on down the road and it's amazing how such a simple tale is told on such a grand, almost epic level. The ending considerably more tense than the plot synopsis can really employ and the way in which the violin travels through history is told with style, wit, and intelligence.

Visually the film is near-perfect. The camera work is smooth and graceful and almost musical in a way. What we see fits perfectly with what we hear and the score adds an incredible amount of dramatic tension to the picture and punctuates that various emotions that are felt not only by the characters in the film but also by the viewing audience. While an independent Canadian arthouse film about a violin might not sound like a particularly interesting idea for a film, there's so much more at work here than a simple history lesson that this film is likely going to appeal to and charm anyone with a remote appreciation for cinema.

Video:

The Red Violin is presented in a nice 1.78.1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. There's a fine coat of grain and the occasional minutes spec of print damage if you want to look for it but this is otherwise a very nice effort from Lionsgate. There aren't any compression artifacts or edge enhancement issues to complain about and the lush color scheme of the film comes across very nicely. A few of the darker scenes lose some of the fine detail in the shadows but for the most part this is a sharp and appropriately film-like transfer.