Bill Forester

... I am at a loss in describing how bad this film is, actually. Imagine four unrelated scripts, in loose leaf, dropped, all pages flying helter skelter and hastily picked up, bundled, separated, and each handed to an incompetent director who has assembled a bored and uninterested cast... ...it's worse than that

This movie features a professional cast and superb historical vignettes all related to the secret buried in the storyline. So well done I had to watch it a second time. As a builder of musical instruments including violins, I was particularly fascinated by the complexity that the experts seem to embrace with both nonchalance and wonder. I understand it perfectly. Samuel L. Jackson is his usual self: caustic, overbearing, egocentric and narcissistic and is wonderful in this role. And the final scene brings that feeling of biting into aluminum foil to your teeth. It is perfect.