Every summer I make a pilgrimage to the Stratford Festival in Ontario to see some great theatre. And when I'm there I always make a point of seeing at least one play that I know little or nothing about. I hope to be taken by surprise by something great, and usually I have my wish granted. This year's mystery play was Possible Worlds by John Mighton, which I had never even heard of, but which sounded exactly like something I would love. I was immediately spellbound; by the time the lights came back up after an intermissionless 90 minutes, this haunting, poetic, thought-provoking play had suddenly become one of my favorites. A deeply philosophical musing on the nature of identity, perception, reality, and love, Mighton's story is part mystery, part romance, part cerebral sci-fi, and all existential drama. I immediately wanted – needed – to see it again to further unpack its layers of meaning; so imagine my excitement when I found out that Mighton had adapted the play into a 2000 film starring that queen of strange, unique cinema, Tilda Swinton.
One trip to Amazon later, this excitement turned to
disappointment as I discovered that Possible Worlds had inexplicably
never been released in America, and the Canadian DVD (and even VHS tape) are
very rare and expensive after several years out of print. There is a readily
available, fairly inexpensive UK DVD, so the film is still easy enough to get
your hands on... but only if you have a way to view region 2, PAL-format discs.
Fortunately I do, and so I was soon able to confirm that the film, directed by
Robert Lepage, is every bit as great as the play it was adapted from. Possible
Worlds is a small masterpiece: a film that is as philosophically
challenging as it is poetic, translated from stage to screen using ethereal,
dream-like visuals that perfectly compliment John Mighton's cerebral dialogue.
"So, do you come to this alternate reality often?" |
The bulk of the story is told through conversations between
George and Joyce; or rather, between various versions of George and Joyce as
the movie continuously slips across its possible worlds. And while this does
draw from the material's theatrical roots, the film never feels stagey.
Instead, it takes on an intimate, thoughtful feel not unlike the
conversation-driven style of Richard Linklater's Waking Life and Before...
trilogy. The comparison to Waking Life is especially appropriate,
given both the highly dream-like style of this film and the focus on
philosophical concepts in the dialogue. As we get to know George and Joyce in
all the possibilities of who they could be, these conversations assemble a
larger picture of the complex facets of personality and relationships, and
ultimately our experience of reality at large. Some of these concepts have been
explored in other films like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Dark
City, but the approach here is decidedly different, and a good deal more
challenging. It isn't as accessible as those, as the slippery nature of
George's shifts between worlds keeps us disoriented, and always questioning
which reality we are seeing. It invites us to really think about what it all
means, and it certainly benefits from multiple viewings. Viewers who are
interested in these themes and up for a challenge will find Possible Worlds
extremely compelling and rewarding.
"Before entering, please hang all ShamWow on the wall." |
Mighton himself approached Lepage about directing the film,
and the two artists are a perfect match. Lepage, himself a playwrite and a
director for stage as well as screen, clearly knows how to handle difficult
material and navigate the differences between the two mediums. Tom McCamus and
Tilda Swinton are both excellent as the two leads, navigating the subtle shifts
in their characters across the different realities. McCamus channels the
existential desperation and uncertainty of someone whose sense of self and
reality is constantly in flux. And Swinton has an even more interesting task,
as she effectively plays a bunch of slightly different, yet somehow the same,
characters. Needless to say, she rises to the occasion with her usual
excellence and otherworldly charisma.
When Possible Worlds was released in 2000, it got an
impressive six Genie Award nominations, and won two of them. It took home the
Genies for Best Art Direction/Production Design and Best Achievement in
Editing, and was nominated for Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Best Director
for Robert Lepage, and Best Leading Actress for Tilda Swinton. It was, by all
measures, a highly successful independent film, and did well enough
internationally that an indie film festival in Australia is named after it. So
how on earth is it possible that it never found any distribution in America, or
that it is so rare and long-out-of-print in Canada? I suppose that in 2000,
before the success of similar films like Waking Life and Eternal
Sunshine, distributors could have been skeptical of whether American
audiences would have the patience or desire to watch such a challenging,
decidedly non-mainstream film. But even so, with a star as marketable in indie
circles as Tilda Swinton, surely some smaller company should have been
interested in giving it an art-house run. The current North American paperback
of the play still says “now a motion picture directed by Robert Lepage” on the
cover... but now it only promotes a film that you can't even buy on this
continent. Possible Worlds cries out for a special edition
re-release, if anyone will listen.
"You there! Do you know where they hang the ShamWow? I could really use one." |
Truly a criminally neglected film, Possible Worlds is
a small masterpiece that demands rediscovery. For those who like their films
challenging and philosophical, I cannot recommend it highly enough. This needs
to be brought to the attention of a distributor who will show it the love that
it deserves, so it can be widely appreciated beyond just multi-region import
collectors. I want to live in the possible world where this film has a North
American special edition.
SCORE:
- Christopher S. Jordan