Los Angeles Times

While it's possible to view this movie like a short-story collection, putting check marks beside the selections one likes best, to do so would deny the pleasure of experiencing this beautifully crafted, intricately designed story the way it was intended, as an organic whole. [11 June 1999, Calendar, p.F-8]

Los Angeles Times by Eric Harrison

While it's possible to view this movie like a short-story collection, putting check marks beside the selections one likes best, to do so would deny the pleasure of experiencing this beautifully crafted, intricately designed story the way it was intended, as an organic whole. [11 June 1999, Calendar, p.F-8]

Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert

There really is a little something here for everyone: music and culture, politics and passion, crime and intrigue, history and even the backstage intrigue of the auction business.

San Francisco Examiner

Beautiful. Simply, beautiful.

Entertainment Weekly

Carefully crafted, lushly romantic.

San Francisco Chronicle by Bob Graham

Some will say this film is overly ambitious, but what the hell. The man put five years of his life into making this epic mystery. We can surely give it two hours of ours.

Entertainment Weekly by Caren Weiner Campbell

Carefully crafted, lushly romantic.

San Francisco Examiner by Edvins Beitiks

Beautiful. Simply, beautiful.

ReelViews by James Berardinelli

The ensemble cast is diverse and accomplished, but, because of the time constraints, no one has enough time to register much of a positive or negative impression.

Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt

Girard invests each episode of this production with dramatic credibility and emotional strength.

Chicago Tribune by Mark Caro

Although not all of the movements are fleshed out to their full potential, The Red Violin still attains a certain symphonic grandeur that -- at a time when so many filmmakers are churning out cinematic ditties -- deserves to be applauded. [18 June 1999, Friday, p.A]

Dallas Observer by Andy Klein

It's unlikely that anyone will be bored. But it's just as unlikely that anyone will be swept off his feet either.

The A.V. Club by Keith Phipps

As pleasant stimulation for the eye and ear, it's two hours of sumptuousness, but anyone looking for more won't find it here.

TV Guide Magazine

Girard and his collaborators are so focused on the stunning tableaux that all other considerations fall by the wayside, leaving their visual achievements -- miraculous on such a small budget -- mired in the elaborate but maladroit storytelling.

USA Today by Mike Clark

Almost by himself, Jackson transforms the film's final chapter into a serviceable view -- faint praise, perhaps, but a crumb to savor, given what has come before. [11 June 1999, Life, p. 6E]

Variety by David Stratton

Fails on a number of counts, mostly because the individual stories aren't very gripping.

Salon by Andrew O'Hehir

It's almost as lame-brained as any Hollywood blockbuster, if prettier and more pretentious.

Village Voice by Dennis Lim

It sustains its purplish, epic sweep by thrusting broadly etched characters into extravagantly hokey situations, and registers mainly as a flamboyant joke.