The film is heedlessly ambitious. In a time of timid projects and easy formulas, The Red Violin has the kind of sweep and vision that we identify with elegant features from decades ago.

Like the immaculate instrument it follows, "The Red Violin" is a piece of filmmaking fully refined by the hands of someone who believed in the material, and the effect it leaves us with is one of transcendence.

A surprisingly exciting and delicate epic.

The story lines, while having little direct connection to historical events, are obviously grounded in musical and artistic legend.