Rating: 
Summary: Brilliant!!! Fantastic!!!!! Wonderful!!!! Timeless!!!
Review: This movie is a true masterpiece! It portrays the story of an artsy theatre group in their contraversal production based on the life of Jesus Christ. The characters are realistic and full of life. The cinematography is excellent and the story manages to send a timeless message into our modern life. I've watched it a dozen times and I never get tired of it! Every time I experience something new! This is a must see for any movie fan! It is a great tribute to the people of the fantastic City of Montreal and their culture!!!!! It's message is beautiful and easy to understand - no matter what language you speak!
Rating:
Summary: Worth having to wade through subtitles
Review: This movie is not for the Rooten Tooten Shooten Gang. However anyone who appreciates thought-provoking films with sustinance will appreciate this film. It is loaded with symbolism, messges about the real Christ, and a message which will leave the viewer thinking after viewing.Stongly recommended for those who are not offended by nudity or those who question the establishment. It is NOT for children or for those looking for a good time. The nudity is not sexual in nature and was not offensive to me. Unlike most movies, it added to the realism and was NOT put there to get ratings.
Rating:
Summary: Moving story of Jesus's message in a modern reincarnation...
Review: « Jésus de Montréal » was a stunning, thought-provoking film by Montréalais director Denys Arcand. The strong ensemble cast includes Lothaire Bluteau ("Le confessional," "La robe noire") and Robert Lepage (famous Québec playwright, author of "Nô," and "The Seven Streams of the River Ota"). The story revolves around a series of actors: Constance (who works in a soup kitchen, plays Mary Magdalene and sleeps with the priest), Mireille (a sexy young actress whose sole talent, according to her ex, is in her backside), Martin and Réné, actors who dub porno films in French, and Daniel (Bluteau), a fragile young actor enlisted to play Jesus in a popular passion play. Bluteau is frail and androgynous to a certain degree, lending him an angelic quality. He is extremely soft-spoken and I often had to turn the volume up to hear him. His voice was barely above a whisper in many of the passion play scenes and near the end. Daniel does extensive research into the life and times of Jesus, taking into account new archaeological findings. Instead of merely "updating" the passion play he, along with his fellow actors, rewrites it. Jesus is the son of a Roman soldier in the play, the crucifixion is performed accurately (naked, with the torso twisted to the side), and the Catholic priests are upset and demand an end to the passion play on the mount. Martin works in his Hamlet soliloquy "To sleep...perchance to dream..." in a scene that is strangely powerful as the resurrected Jesus comes to the disciples. The normally mild mannered Daniel rebels at the treatment Mireille receives at an audition, and mirroring Jesus' disruption of the moneylenders in the temple in Matthew 21:12 ("And Jesus entered into the temple of God, and cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple, and overthrew the tables of he money-changers, and the seats of them that sold the doves.") Daniel becomes irrational when the casting director (Mireille's ex-boyfriend) tells her to strip. Daniel orders her to refuse, then, flying into a rage knocks over tables, smashes cameras and monitors and causes thousands of dollars worth of damage. His life begins to mirror that of Jesus. Lothaire Bluteau was the only choice for the role of Daniel/ Jesus. He becomes so involved in all of his roles that he walks a dangerous line. Robert Lepage says that he embodies and expresses emotional pain better than any actor in the world. Lothaire Bluteau says of himself that he still is struggling to learn to live with the searing pain he feels for real. According to a recent interview, "In person, the theatrical, charismatic, deeply analytical and cathartic Bluteau wears many emotional scars beneath his pale and skeletal physical armour. His immersion into the characters that have inhabited not only his physical being, but his emotional thoughts and each waking moment are the very extension of himself into some intangible realms. He readily admits that these fictional characters are always awaiting his presence to fill them and breathe life into their troubled existences." Ask Bluteau if he finds it difficult to achieve a separation point between the characters her portrays and himself and he frowns: "Sometimes I think I'm getting better at not drowning in the emotional sadness and the fear I have when I start working on a film or play. When you are enriched by your characters life, you do tend to share a lot of things together. They will call upon your emotions and leave you with souvenirs and old scars, that you manage to survive from. The character wants to borrow that pain, and of course there is a transformation and collar of sadness that you are attached to." So he is ultimately believable as a modern-day Jesus, preaching to the crowds at a Montréal subway station, chasing the "money lenders" out of the studio, and finally sacrificing his life so that others may live through him. The final scenes are unspeakably powerful as Daniel's message lives on. There are moments of humour as well, irreverence towards Catholic doctrine and its unwillingness to change. When the priest informs them that they have to revert to the original script, Martin, Réné, Constance and Mireille begin an absurdly funny ad-lib update of the passion play. First Constance recites a line and makes it sound like a line from a porno dub, then Mireille turns it into une comédie française, Martin tries New York method acting, Réné vulgar joual, and Martin and Réné do a Kabuki version that had me in tears. It was the funniest thing I had seen in years. There are similar lighthearted moments between the actors/friends, but much of the story has a sombre tone. The cinematography is spectacular, with enticing shots of Montréal at work and at play. The nighttime scenes are particularly effective, as are the passion play scenes. The music is sparse but haunting: an aria from Pergolesi's Stabat Mater that is sung at the end over the credits, and during the passion play we hear haunting music from Le mystère des voix bulgares. There is some nudity, although it is not sexual. There is a lot of offensive language, especially during the improv passion play, and during the porno dubbing scene (which is hilarious in a sad way). This is not a film for those who are devoutly religious or easily offended. The film is subtitled in English (with French subtitles over the English dialogue).
« Jésus de Montréal » explores the story of Jesus, updates it, gives it a fresh young face in the form of Daniel. What would happen if Jesus reappeared in the world today? Denys Arcand explores this through multiple Biblical parallels and imagery and a stellar supporting cast, also using the film as a vehicle to express his distaste of the all-consuming media and material greed. We see the transformation of a group of ordinary actors into Biblical beings who are profoundly changed by Daniel's/Jesus's presence in their lives. This film will leave you thinking for hours afterwards.
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