The movie then jumps back to just before the creation of the violin where a very pregnant Anna (wife of Bussotti) asks for a Tarot reading. As the cards are turned, a different event in the life of the violin and its many owners is predicted and shown.

This jumping from the present day auction, to the Tarot reading, to the life of different owners subtly unravels the mystery of the violin’s creation and path from Europe to Communist China to our time.

Though none of the owners know the secret of the "Red Violin", it becomes the custodian of talent, the treasure chest of inspiration, and the hope for the future. Masterful violin solos and orchestral pieces accompany the life stories of the violin’s keepers who each in their way search for perfection in playing it. The score is, as one would expect, tailored to exemplify the music of the period of each owner.

A young orphan prodigy in Austria clings to the instrument almost as if it were a teddy bear while he dreams of developing his life after his talent is discovered by monks. Frederick Pope in England, truly a virtuoso, makes everything secondary to his musical inspiration while he plays the "Red Violin" like a Paganini, sometimes while making love. A woman in communist China, risks her life to save the violin from the soul-crushing dogmatists bent on destroying all vestiges of western influence.

While we watch, the "Red Violin" becomes a symbol far greater than any single life. Three hundred years of human drive towards musical perfection and expression become encapsulated in one little wooden object. The juxtaposition of the temporal insignificance of any single life and the relative immortality of the work created by that life, give us an opportunity to, at least for a moment, glimpse a unifying force of human endeavors.

Samuel Jackson plays Dr. Morritz, the modern day expert brought in to authenticate the "Red Violin". This role is refreshing as a show case of his talent and as a driven, insightful, intelligent and sensitive departure from the current casting of black men as action heroes.

The greatest magic and mystery are hidden within the events in 16^th century Cremona and the state of the art scientific authentication in 20^th century Montreal. We ponder how the future predicted for Bussotti’s wife, Anna, who died in childbirth, could become the future of the violin. Only when we get to Dr. Morritz and his relentless pursuit of the past, do we realize how the violin was made. Varnished with blood from Anna’s dead body with a brush made from her hair, the violin imbibes a human spirit and sets out to fulfill her destiny.

This brings us to the core driving force of the story, the search for perfection. Of all the people who ever laid their hands on the violin, two individuals stand out. Bussotti and Dr. Morritz are the only ones who have devoted their life’s mission to creating or finding the perfect violin. Bussotti was so obsessed with perfection that he smashed unworthy instrument models in front of his penitent apprentices. Dr. Morritz, similarly, nearly terrorized staff while working on identifying the violin.

Dr. Morritz then steals the violin to save it from those who would encase it or who have already proved that they do not understand it. He in fact fulfills Bussotti’s original intention by taking the violin home to give it to his daughter as the maker would have done had his wife and child survived.

As the audience, we are left with the question: "What does one do when one finds the perfect thing?" Looking at the span of time this film portrays, we see just how deeply the search for perfection defines our history – to reach higher, to run faster, to create the best. We all look for that one greatest thing, and the search might take us to the ends of the Earth and the limits of our skills. For the most part, our answer to perfection lies in the search for it because few ever get to stand in the presence of the perfect thing.

In the end, however, we must understand that no achievement we strive for becomes perfect unless it is allowed to contain all that we feel, and all that we are. Bussotti spent night and day making his instruments, but only when he sealed in his heartache, his passion, and love, did he create the one thing that can stand for his entire life and carry forth the humanity it represents.

The Red Violin reminds us just how important search for perfection might be, and that ultimately none us can stand in judgment of our lives, but only as threads of humanity that make up history.