Possible Worlds

As its title suggests, "Possible Worlds" is a film about the possibility of infinite parallel worlds, but if you're expecting some kind of Hollywood-style CGI extravaganza, you've come to the wrong place: it is a low-budget Canadian film and the special effects are minimal. Nevertheless, it invites you to soak in its dreamy, fluid images. As he proved in his writing-directing debut, "Le Confessionnal", Robert Lepage is a wizard especially at scene transitions. Both films are ambitious and interesting, if not 100% successful. But, as an old saying goes, sometimes an ambitious "failure" is preferable to a safe "success". Tilda Swinton is captivating, as always. **1/2 out of 4.

This film while being a low budget indy work stinks of quality. Some of the camera shots feel like paintings presented within the story. Light and colour are very well used. The story well... check it out. It may force you to watch it twice but it's worth it. I run a small film watching group for eight or nine friends, we watch a film selected by different member each week with no vetos, this gives us an eclectic mix of movies. Of course it is becoming a point of pride to please and impress the group with your choice. Possible worlds has been one of the best finds from the group and I am very grateful to have been shown it. Thanks Ben

You will know in the first ten minutes if this film is for you or not. Possible Worlds explores themes of the mind in a science-fiction setting. A man seems all knowing at the start of the film, and impresses his interviewers by quickly calculating the solution to several complex problems posed to him, all without a calculator. Later we find out he is not super intelligent, but retains memories from all his other selves in parallel universes. I suppose at least one of his alternate selves must have gone through the interview already, so he just pulls on that memory.

He also explores a relationship with the same woman, who is strikingly different in each of the parallel worlds. In one, she is loving and compassionate, in another scattered and distant. The story is never showy, gimmicky, or clichéd, unlike what we have come to expect from Hollywood.

Visually, there are not many films better than this. Each scene is so beautiful it's almost as though every inch of the scene was meticulously composed by hand. Some scenes lingered without dialogue, and I wanted them to stay longer just so I could appreciate the scene more. The film leaves a definite mood long after the credits end.

A stunning film. Thought-provoking, funny and engaging. The opening credits pulled me and I was left breathless at the end. The cinematography is amazing, and works extremely well with the plot. Some plot summaries have made the storyline sound like Sliding Doors, but it is a wholly different movie. Possible Worlds deals with several issues (the main one being alternate lives) and has many sub-plots, all of which fall together wonderfully. Go for the eye-candy, the philisophical dialouge, the acting, the directing or the plot--but see it!

Science Fiction is hooey, and so too is multi-dimensionality, which is, from what I've heard, the latest theoretical craze in philosophy. These elements may be highlighted in "Possible Worlds"; they can be used to categorize the film. I, contrarily, would rather not fix my viewpoint on "Possible Worlds" while referring to film texts (science fiction), or to texts of philosophy (multi-dimensionality).

I enjoyed Possible Worlds as a whole, and my explanation of what made it enjoyable is inexact. There was a unearthly mood to it, a friction of impossible magnitudes. And then there was the score. Peter Gabriel's contribution mystified "Possible Worlds," a necessity, we may say in hindsight. The film's captured images similarly aided mystification. I didn't at all get the feeling the director was slipping in pictures from a "nature calendar." It seemed "Possible Worlds'" imagery was that of solitary reflection, they were of the detached mind, when memory overrules whatever continuity we're surrounded by. Individuals sat alone, in their minds.

I suppose "Possible Worlds" isn't an everyman's film. And it should not be. It should not find a category whereby it becomes easily approachable.