CheerupSilver Very Cool!!!

SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Salubfoto It's an amazing and heartbreaking story.

Michael Neumann A young actor is commissioned to update an annual Montreal Passion Play (starring himself) but is a little too convincing in his role, drawing unfriendly criticism from the Catholic Church and finally suffering his own crucifixion (and state-of-the-art resurrection). Director Denys Arcand wants to demystify the Gospels (the performance of the Play itself might have been called 'Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Jesus But Were Afraid To Ask'), but his film works better as a media satire than as a modern-day theology lesson. Lothaire Bluteau's (rarely changing) hang-dog beatific calm makes the title character more of a martyr than Christ ever was (his death throes in the Montreal subway are interminable), although it's never clear if the mysterious actor simply identifies with his role or is in fact the actual Man from Galilee. But even at its most pretentious the film is engagingly playful; Arcand may be wearing his intellect on his sleeve, but his Messiah isn't too far removed from Jeffrey Hunter in 'King of Kings'.

jonny-griffiths I first saw this film maybe fifteen years ago, and it had a profound impact. The plot is not original: an actor is recruited by a church to play Jesus in a Passion play, and as he works himself into the part, he becomes increasingly Christ-like. (Nicos Kazantzakis took a similar line in his novel 'Christ Recrucified.') However, its modern-day setting and iconoclastic approach mean that 'Jesus of Montreal' really does have a flavour all of its own.The church that has recruited him in the first place becomes alarmed at the radical interpretation he and his carefully-picked cast give the Passion narrative, and nervous at the hit they have on their hands. The parallels between Christ's life and that of the young hero become closer and closer, when he destroys the equipment a set of a morally bankrupt advertising agency (a la Jesus throwing out the money-makers from the Temple.) The film is packed with humour: the lead actor is interrogated and then arrested by the local police at whilst still on the cross.So does the Resurrection happen too? In a way it does. Our hero dies, crushed by the weight of the cross during a performance. Tragic, but there is a kind of redemption in that his youth makes his organs highly desirable. The film shows the beneficiaries of his death, a woman given sight with a new retina, a man walking with a new heart, and a boy given a new kidney. A situation turned inside out, just as in the actual Easter story.

hbeernyc This film really disappointed me. The acting is atrocious. Unbelievable. And it's about actors. The story is incredibly obvious: A group of independent actors stage a Passion Play and, in turn, they start to live out the lives of the characters they play. I've been watching a lot of movies lately, thanks to Netflix, and this is the first one I haven't watched all the way through in a long time. I felt I didn't need to see the end; we all know the end of this story.For some, it seems, this "modernization" of the Gospels is either sacrilegious or enlightening. I cannot speak to any of this as I wasn't raised in the Christian church. That being said, I was raised in the US and I live in an increasingly Christian culture. I'm curious enough about Jesus and about the modernization of the religion, for better or worse. I haven't seen Mel Gibson's version, but I'm guessing that those who liked that one will like this, except for the most conservative. I just wish this was a better film.Lots of these reviews praise Arcand's direction and especially the cinematography. I liked neither. The film itself is rather prudish and preachy. I didn't believe the characters' personae and I was never involved with their on screen lives. The play within the play is very much dated and would not, I think, carry it's own weight in a real time production. But that's beside the point. What I really needed for this to work would have been stronger development of the characters and the plot to support the philosophical and theological questions the film would like to be about. And the musical choices are obvious and unoriginal.There were two examples of this that come easily to mind. Firstly, there is a reenactment of the parable of Jesus driving the money lenders from the temple: the lead actor, who has fallen for the woman who will play Magdalene and who is also a model and dancer, becomes enraged that she must debase herself by auditioning for a commercial (with a wicked producer and plenty of panting men in the audience) with her pants off. He trashes the place and chases them all out. I guess this is the level that the film wishes to reach. The romance between these two is entirely arbitrary and not at all emotionally realized and the scene is played out like a high-school rendering of Death of a Salesman, i.e., not well. Please stop hitting me over the head with this high-handed "significance." The other is the relationship between the other female lead and the priest who has asked them to do the play and who, eventually, turns against them and betrays them to the nowadays-corrupt Church. Why. Why does she sleep with this guy. "It brings him so much pleasure and me so little pain." Ah, the saintly whore and the lovable old coot. It seems to be just enough for Arcand to signify but not worth the trouble to enrich and enliven these characters. They are going through the motions and I'm reaching for the eject button.Feel free to write me off as bored, jaded or just not interested. Feel free to watch this movie and see the Passion, in all its beauty, sadness and inspiration, delivered as an amateurish and gimmicky charade. Feel free to have all your preconceived ideas affirmed and see any shred of artistic integrity forsaken for monotonous drivel. But don't say I didn't warn you.

nleanin Truly a great film. I initially saw this in Montreal while living there a few years ago and have have been hooked on it since. This film portrays a wonderful parallel in the lives and situations of the characters in the film with the lives of Jesus and his followers. Right down to the dramatic end. Clear Representions made are Jesus, Mary Magdalen, and of course the Pharisees. Its certainly a thought provoking film just as the story of the crucifixion is thought provoking on both a personal level and in looking at the world outside. And to tease my fried who commented previously on this film. It is truly Quebecois, not Canadian. :)