Jesús de Montreal

"Jesus of Montreal" is a beautiful film about the real meaning of spirituality. Pitted against the inflexibility of religious institutions, Daniel (played wonderfully by Lothaire Bluteau) shows his rag-tag disciples the real meaning behind the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. The story-within-the-story works well. Director Denys Arcand subtly begins to blend the story of the biblical Jesus with the day-to-day lives of a group of actors performing in a play about the last days of Jesus. The turning over of the tables in the Temple, the temptation of Jesus overlooking the city of Jerusalem, being abandoned by the male disciples, and many other tales of Jesus find their parallel in the lives of Daniel and his friends. The resurrection scene at the end of the film is a particularly moving overlapping of the two stories. In the hands of a lesser writer/director, this could have all been really trite. Instead, the film becomes in the truest sense of the term a parable in which we see how great truths from a great teacher really do apply in our own lives. Every performance is pitch perfect, the pace is just right, and the message is, as always, what we all need to remember: Real happiness lies not in what we have but in what we give. A ten out of ten film.