Already a maestro of musical mysteries with The Red Violin, François Girard builds on his reputation with The Song of Names, another mature drama — this one spanning not hundreds of years of provenance, but nearly five decades of a complicated friendship.

Intriguing from the start, the film wastes no time hooking viewers with its opening 1951-set scenes in which talented violinist Dovidl Rapaport fails to show for his much-hyped London debut, inflicting embarrassment (and more) on his adoptive family, the Simmonds. 

From there, screenwriter Jeffrey Caine (The Constant Gardner) — adapting Norman Lebrecht’s Whitbread-winning novel — sets up a triune timeline, nimbly moving between adult Martin Simmonds (Tim Roth) pursuing a series of unlikely leads in 1986 to track down his long-lost brother, and 1939, when the young Jewish violin prodigy from Warsaw is saved from the pending Nazi invasion, leaving his birth family in likely peril.

The dramatic richness of the above tensions live up to their billing under Girard’s capable direction, which encourages strong performances amidst crisp period-appropriate backdrops. In each stage, Dovidl is a magnetic yet enigmatic and unpredictable character while Martin exists more as a reactionary character, yet it’s the pair’s dynamic that stands out throughout the film, bolstered by the rarity of three different sets of actors who excel both individually and as a unit.

Though tween Dovidl (relative newcomer Luke Doyle) and Martin (Misha Handley, The Woman in Black) accomplish little beyond getting the latter to open his bratty heart and make a friend, the versions of Dovidl (Jonah Hauer-King, A Dog’s Way Home) and Martin (Gerran Howell, 1917) as young men flesh out the characters into true individuals with relatable hopes, dreams, and fears.

The scenes between Roth and Clive Owen’s adult Dovidl likewise make good on the talented actors’ pairing, and while more screen time between them would of course be welcome, their collective brevity fits Dovidl’s personality and the film’s tragic, mysterious nature.

Despite Roth’s Martin verbally expositing the wrong turns that led him to helpful sources along his Dovidl quest, his detective work feels far too easy and his string of successes undercuts his mission’s needle-in-a-haystack odds.

Dovidl’s big emotional turning point that results in his disappearance also plays out awkwardly — at least initially — and a last-minute revelation about Martin’s wife Helen (Catherine McCormack, 28 Weeks Later) is glossed over with surprising nonchalance, but neither stumble can mar The Song of Names’ overarching emotional wonder.

Grade: B-plus. Rated PG-13. Starts Jan. 24 at Grail Moviehouse

(Photo: Sony Pictures Classics)