Movie Grade: A

If you’ve ever seen a Terry Gilliam movie, you know that there’s something about his perspective on the world that sets him apart. His projects often suffer from thematic and visual excess, the kind of overzealous creativity that pushes far beyond the subject matter at hand and often overwhelms the story he’s trying to tell. Pretty much since his failed Don Quixote movie with Johnny Depp, Gilliam hasn’t been able to find his past success, in part because he hasn’t had the kind of story concept that can absorb his vision. Luckily for him, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is just the kind of story he was born to tell. It’s an epic yet subtle film, supportive of its subject matter while simultaneously relishing in the quiet character moments that had all but vanished from his recent work. The cast is uniformly wonderful, and the visuals, though occasionally cheesy, have an otherworldly brilliance to them that will make you forget that you’re watching a movie.

Of course, despite all that, the first thing you probably want to know is what the quality of Heath Ledger‘s final performance is. I think people will be surprised by its subtlety, expecting, I guess, a Gilliam version of the Joker. His work is terrific overall, and the character gives him a lot more room to breath than his past leading man roles. Though this will not be the performance that Ledger is known for, he is consistently inventive and believable throughout, giving the whole piece an energy it wouldn’t have had at the hands of another actor. In an odd twist of fate, his death opens up the film to yet another level of creative brilliance, as Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell each step in to help “complete” his original performance. Through a great plot device, each actor feels completely at home in their little version of the world, while simultaneously nailing their line readings in such a classic Heath Ledger tenor as to be creepily accurate to his style of speech. The diverting images of the character are held together by a respect for what Ledger started, and it shines in each of his supporting performers. Though it would be interesting to see what kind of movie Gilliam would have made if tragedy had not struck, I think that the solution to that particular crisis may have been one of the best narrative choices in the film.

The film also doesn’t feel remotely incomplete. Ledger had finished the vast majority of his “real world” photography before his death, making the effects sequences the only places where changes had

to be made. The actual lead of the film is Christopher Plummer, who gives one of his best performances as the ancient and enigmatic Doctor Parnassus. You feel for him at an incredibly emotional level, and it is his pain which allows Tom Waits to be so wonderfully sinister as The Devil. You get the sense, not unlike Guillermo Del Toro‘s work with the Hellboy films, that Gilliam likes this world better than our reality, and that the characters within it are more real to him than you or I ever could be. The writing demonstrates his love for these people and the amount of emotional investment he has in each and every one of them. If you don’t find yourself pulled into the world in front of you while watching this film, then I don’t really know what to say to you. Enter the Imaginarium, regain your faith in humanity, and exit with your imagination firmly reattached to your sub-conscious. There’s enough brilliance in there to tide you over for years to come.

Movie Grade: A

Synopsis:

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a fantastical morality tale, set in the present day. It tells the story of Dr Parnassus and his extraordinary ‘Imaginarium’, a travelling show where members of the audience get an irresistible opportunity to choose between light and joy or darkness and gloom. Blessed with the extraordinary gift of guiding the imaginations of others, Dr Parnassus is cursed with a dark secret. Long ago he made a bet with the devil, Mr Nick, in which he won immortality. Many centuries later, on meeting his one true love, Dr Parnassus made another deal with the devil, trading his immortality for youth, on condition that when his first-born reached its 16th birthday he or she would become the property of Mr Nick. Valentina is now rapidly approaching this ‘coming of age’ milestone and Dr Parnassus is desperate to protect her from her impending fate. Mr Nick arrives to collect but, always keen to make a bet, renegotiates the wager. Now the winner of Valentina will be determined by whoever seduces the first five souls. Enlisting a series of wild, comical and compelling characters in his journey, Dr Parnassus promises his daughter’s hand in marriage to the man that helps him win. In this captivating, explosive and wonderfully imaginative race against time, Dr Parnassus must fight to save his daughter in a never-ending landscape of surreal obstacles – and undo the mistakes of his past once and for all…