Into a summer of easy thrills comes a lush meditation on affairs of the heart and secrets lost to the ages. While the film never quite resonates with the formalism it aspires to, it does sustain a refreshingly understated tone of romance and remembrance -- history as object lesson, music as alchemy. Encapsulated in the titular instrument's curves and lines and surfaces are several intricate ironies: grace notes in a noisy season.

Sylvia Chang

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