This is a good movie with a bigger historical impact.
Veronica Guerin (2003) is based on a true story of a true heroine reporter investigating the rampant drug trade in 1990's Dublin.
But this is another movie (2 in a row??) that I have more respect for after listening to the Director's commentary.
So here's what you should know that get's lost in the translation (THICK Irish accents caused more than a little confusion for me), or - in my opinion - not enough time and effort devoted to: 1) Veronica wasn't schooled/trained as a writer or journalist. She was an accountant by trade who had an overwhelming desire to out the wrong. She started her journalistic career by tracking a pervert Catholic priest to Nicaragua then New York, on her own dime, and sat on his doorstep until he relented to an interview (his only one!) But, despite her tenacity, she wasn't a good writer and her "peers" in the journalism community regarded her, uuummm, shall we say, badly. 2) Irish laws erred on the side of the individual. After being an English-controlled police state for so long their constitution was too liberal and handcuffed, so to speak, the police. And 3) Libel laws weren't near what they are here. So reporters couldn't even name a suspect in writing no matter what the evidence against. Unless convicted, the name had to be a made up pseudo-name or nickname.
I did enjoy this movie on my first watching. It's a good crime drama. But then I learned how true it actually was and appreciated it even more.
The Red Violin (1998), simply put, is a biography of a rare, precious violin and the lives it touches. From it's creation in Cremona, Italy (Mecca of violin making) in 1681 to its being put on an auction block now, 3 centuries later.
The stories are good, but the music is EXQUISITE! The music binds the 5 stories together! It's entertaining to listen to! It's impossibly difficult to play (I know)! John Corigliano (with collaboration from Joshua Bell, maybe the best living violinist) made the music so good that Corigliano easily made it in to a work of its own that premiered with the LA Symphony even before the movie did. And was critically acclaimed.
In other words, the music stands on its own!
The acting is good, also. Especially the violinists. It is easy for a former player to point out when actors aren't actually playing their instruments, especially strings. In The Red Violin that never happened. They went to enormous lengths to get the performers to be in sync with the music.
The best example was casting a 8-year old actual violin student to portray the child protege, who they then taught to be an actor. An 8-year old is actually playing this impossibly-hard etude! Tho you actually hear Bell playing the kid is actually doing it also! And it shows! I thought just this adorable, amazing kid alone was worth the price of admission, so to speak.
The directing and writing is equally good...
Until the end.
I hated the ending!
But I was intrigued enough by the rest of it to watch the DVD extras. The "making of" featurettes are good (Joshua Bell looks like he's 18 even tho he's a year older than I am!) but I got a relief, and a new-found appreciation for the film after listening to what the director/writers had to say about the ending.
I know I'm not the only person to misunderstand their intentions based on their commentary.
So, I highly recommend watching The Red Violin! Regardless of what you think of it's ending, it is still worth seeing!
And if you don't like the ending, as I did, watch the director's commentary, at least for the last of the 5 stories. And like I did, think of how you would change it to make their (better) vision come to life.
