The Far Side of the Moon
National Post
May 7, 2004
There's a school of thought that says that some of the best art is created out of social and political turmoil. This may offer up a putative explanation for why Quebec, where the battle between capitalism and socialism still rages the strongest in North America, has produced such a healthy crop of films over the past year.
As with Denys Arcand's The Barbarian Invasions (and, to a lesser extent, films such as Seducing Doctor Lewis and Gaz Bar Blues), Robert Lepage's The Far Side of Moon takes the province's ideological and political turmoil and plays it out in the context of a family. Beautifully adapted from Lepage's stage play of the same name, the film tells the story of two brothers whose sibling rivalry is an extension of the Cold War. Phillippe, the sad and shy older brother, is a professional student whose doctoral thesis on the cultural implications of the space race keeps getting rejected by his advisors. While endlessly working on his degree, he supports himself by telemarketing for the Quebec City newspaper Le Soleil. Andre, the younger one, is a successful on-air announcer for the Weather Channel and the polar opposite of his brother. Self-centred and materialistic, Andre drives his brother to distraction by talking about money all the time.
The two brothers' conflict dates back to their childhood during the '60s. As a young boy, Phillippe idolized the Russian cosmonauts, and, unable to escape the planet with them, he escaped into his imagination. As his gaze penetrated his pregnant mother's swelling belly, he pictured an astronaut performing a space walk around her womb. Much to his dismay, Andre emerged instead, igniting a vicious fight for his Jackie-Kennedyesque mother's love.
As with The Barbarian Invasions, however, The Far Side of the Moon is about reconciliation, not one way of living defeating another. In both films a death is used to bring a fractured family together. In this case, it's the death of Phillippe and Andre's mother. As they reunite to deal with their mother's belongings, they try to figure out how two people (or peoples) can come together after having fought for so long.
Appropriately for a film whose title sounds suspiciously like a certain Pink Floyd album, The Far Side of the Moon is shot like an acid trip, with washing machine doors turning into spaceship portholes and a classroom blackboard moving aside to reveal an apartment. In one scene, as Phillippe walks across the Plains of Abraham, the site of Canada's most famous battle morphs into the surface of the moon. (Rumour has it that if you play the DVD of this movie at the same time as The Wizard of Oz, you'll break your DVD player.)
The Far Side of the Moon had the potential to be one of the most narcissistic movies ever. Not only is the film written, directed and executive produced by Lepage, he also plays the two lead roles of Phillippe and Andre.
Luckily, it didn't turn into a French-Canadian version of The Klumps. Lepage, who incidentally had his film debut acting in Arcand's Jesus de Montreal, isn't looking into the mirror in order to gaze at his reflection, but rather in order to understand himself and, ultimately, what it is to be human.
The Far Side of the Moon does have some distracting shortcomings -- namely the underdeveloped character of Andre, the source of whose anger we never really discover. In addition, some of Andre's and Phillippe's long monologues are in need of trimming. They may have worked on stage, but should have been edited down for the screen.
Aside from a few lagging moments, however, the dreamlike Far Side of the Moon is a stellar (ho-ho) accomplishment that also has one of the most cathartic conclusions I've seen in a long time. When Phillippe finally does relieve some of his inner burden at the end of the film, the airport lounge he is sitting in suddenly loses all gravity. First his keys and sunglasses float out of his bag, and soon he too is weightless, floating across the room as the screen fades to black.
Rating Three 1/2
posted by J. Kelly 8:00 AM