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".

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 could not understand what this picture was about. It has something to do with the relationship between 2 brothers and their deceased mother. One brother is interested in outer space and the other is a weatherman on TV. If there is a plot to this picture it went over my head and apparently others as well because some of the audience walked out during the picture.This comment requires 10 lines of text but there is so little to say about this picture that I can't think of that much text. Certainly this is one of the most boring films I have seen in years. It is hard to understand how this film made it into any movie theater.

For people in the Theatre community, Lepage is a much heralded genius. But the nature of theatre is that you have to be in the right place at the right time to see his work. With this movie he has etched a beautiful masterpiece for world wide viewing (granted it gets a decent release). I'm not sure if it's just my enthusiasm from having seen the play but the story was just one that I felt I wanted to embrace again. The stage play was so cinematic that a movie seemed inevitable, and the transitions between scenes were even enhanced through the use of a camera rather than stage. This is really too biased to be a review, but if you haven't seen it, you really should.