Far Side of the Moon (2003)

It's no definitive masterpiece but it's damn close.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

What Konstantin Tsiolkovsky said of the moon also holds for this movie: it's the perfect escape for those who lead a heavy life. Small surprise 40-something Philippe (Robert Lepage) idolizes Tsiolkovsky, mathematician and pioneer of space exploration. Philippe is a dwarf in life, but a giant in his dreams. In one scene, we actually see him looming over his Montréal neighborhood like Gulliver in the Land of Lilliput. There's a frozen goldfish named Beethoven, a self-righteous younger brother (also Robert Lepage), and a loving mother who never speaks a single word (Anne-Marie Cadieux). The way Robert Lepage treats fact, fiction, dream, memory, and fantasy as aspects of the same, seamless reality are reminiscent of Michel Gondry, but in a minor key. "La Face Cachée" is a quiet movie, moving through the darkness with the solemn gravity of a heavenly body, in tune with the celestial harmonies of Benoît Jutras' original score. It's for you if you liked "The Science of Sleep", "Igby Going Down", "The Life Aquatic", or "The Man Who Wasn't There".

This Quebecois film is a charmer that redeems much else of dubious merit coming out of that bit of Canada which persists in its French-ness. I'm sure the director/producer/acting talent behind this film benefited much from the experience won producing the stage version. One can only wish him well in future endeavors, as this offering speaks well of his talents in each afore-mentioned area. As you've no doubt gathered from surrounding reviews the story line centers around a coming-of-age confrontation with family realities in a family none too conventional. Sex is central, as in seemingly all Quebec films, but is here more subtly handled. Approach this cinematic experience as you might any "art" film -- and then be prepared to be pleasantly surprised by its substance.

I didn't know what to expect when I went to see this movie, as the reviews that I've read were mixed. Yet I was not disappointed as the movie dealt with the elements of life in general, from an intergalactic perspective. The movie revolves around Philippe, who is single and delusional. He is fascinated by outer space and believes that space is really the final frontier for mankind. The death of his mother brought him in contact with his brother who seems to be more successful in his career and life. Relationships with loved ones, dreams and hopes, failures and success and good music made this movie worth watching. It's about living and not giving up your dreams.

I would have liked to have given this film a 9.99, since there were two scenes which I felt were just a bit too long. Since it is closer to a perfect ten than a perfect 9, however, I had to give it a 10."Far Side of The Moon" is an absolute gem of a film. Robert Lepage is another one of those depressingly competent people who writes, directs and stars in his own films. It is so enchanting that its length (under an hour and three quarters) seems even shorter than it is."Far Side..." is chock full of the most carefully constructed sequences I have ever seen in the cinema. There is literally not one frame that has not been carefully nurtured and coaxed into place--like a piece of a brightly colored mosaic--to create what must be one of the most seamlessly engineered set of images in film history.There are no "stock" shots in this film. Not one shot is ever simply thrown in to get on with the plot. Each scene segues beautifully into the next, each is composed with the utmost care. This is what film making should be. While the movie relies servilely on (often complex)special effects for the realization of its vision, these techniques are not there just for the "wow" factor; rather they are all in the service of a unified directorial vision, full of resonant symbols and painterly motifs that seem always to reach toward each other as if in a dance.You would think that this obsessive attention to setting and color and detail would make the movie stiff and formal. But it does not. First of all, Lepage (and his character Philippe) are full of such self-deprecating irony that there are almost as many laughs as there are sighs of wonder in the movie. But moreover, the film is a supremely dramatic and melancholic tale, . Lepage has created in his character Philippe probably the greatest sad sack since Nabokov's Pnin. You can't help but feel for the poor helpless loser, tricked by his hyperactive and poetic imagination into a failed marriage, a failed university degree, and a failed relation with the only two family members he has.Funny, tragic, witty, and visually splendid. Why don't more moves like this get made?Numer of car chases: 0 Number of gun shots: 0 Number of psychopathic killers: 0 Number of action heroes: 0