I love Terry Gilliam's work: the wild fantasy, the sarcastic wit, the characters who run the gamut from caricatures to real, well developed, believable people caught up in dreamlike adventures. The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is vintage Gilliam: it has roots in Time Bandits and Baron Munchausen and even The Brothers Grimm (though fortunately, it's a much better movie than that one.) It's about the power of imagination to transform us, the need to tell our stories and the dangers of accepting stories told by the forces of authority. It is also about death and immortality: a theme that resonates all the more because it was the last movie Heath Ledger worked on before his untimely passing left it half finished.
The film is a miracle in many ways. Heath Ledger's death didn't bring it to a halt because three distinguished actors who were his close friends stepped in to finish the part of Tony: Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Gilliam was able to incorporate them seamlessly into the action and the story stays intact and even benefits from these transformations.
I think it has a straightforward plot, excellent performances and a wonderfully satisfying resolution: the creating of new stories never ends. The images are beautifully created and photographed. Yes, it poses more questions than it answers, there are layers of symbolism and allusion flying by, many of which will take two or three viewings to absorb, and there are some elements that I'd agree don't work very well. But overall I found it beautifully told.
Christopher Plummer plays Dr. Parnassus, an immortal with the power to guide the imaginations of those who enter the Imaginarium, presenting them with choices that reflect problems in their lives. The alternatives are the hard road to virtue or the easy road to hell. The wrong choices lead them into the arms of the Devil, Mr. Nick; the right ones lead to a fulfilling life.
Dr. Parnassus is one part Dr. Faustus, one part Lear and one part Prospero. He has made one too many deals with the Devil: the latest requires him to turn over his first born child, Valentina (played by the beautiful Lily Cole) to Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) when she turns 16, which will occur in just a few days. Parnassus knows no way of saving her and drinks to numb his feelings of guilt and grief. When Mr. Nick shows up early to collect, he offers Parnassus one more deal: the first one to win five souls in the Imaginarium will get Valentina. Valentina, however, has her own destiny in mind.
Plummer is excellent as the drunken mystic, tortured by grief for the loss of his daughter and then spurred by hope of saving her. Percy, his dwarf sidekick (Verne Troyer), is a cynical realist who comments sarcastically on the follies of his friend and other members of the company. Tom Waits is a hail-fellow-well-met sort of Devil, always willing to take a bet but never quite offering the stakes he seems to be; a quintessential con man. Waits' performance is masterful.
Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell play a mysterious stranger named Tony Shepard, found hanging beneath a bridge and rescued by Valentina, Percy and Anton (Andrew Garfield) a boy from the streets who has become a sleight of hand expert and barker for Parnassus' traveling show.
Heath Ledger established Tony as charming, seductive and a smooth talker who takes over Anton's role in cajoling customers to step right up and threatens to sweep Valentina, who Anton loves, off her feet with his greater sophistication. Depp, Law and Farrell extend and expand Tony's character as he enters the Imaginarium three separate times. All four performances are very fine; despite his changing face, Tony is believable as the same man. Depp gives a speech which could double as a eulogy for Ledger, Jude Law did a nice job of his encounter with Anton and Colin Farrell was darkly convincing as a man who has lost his moral bearings in his drive for fame and success.
Andrew Garfield is new to me, but I'm very glad to have been introduced. As Anton, the innocent young man with a crush on the boss's daughter who becomes jealous and suspicious of the stranger he rescued, I found him charming and intensely real. The greatest surprise is that Lily Cole is not just a beautiful face; she may be inexperienced, but she did a fine job with her part. And as my husband said, "I could watch her for days."
Because I expected to love the film, I decided my husband's reactions would give some balance to my review. In the past he's found Gilliam's style okay in small doses, but he's no devotee. He knew the back story on the making of the film, but not what the movie was about. He told me that he enjoyed it, "much more than I expected to." Beside Lily Cole's scenic value, he thought the performances were good and the photography was beautiful. He had no trouble at all following the plot. He was a little distracted by wondering "Who's Tony this time?" and thought knowing why four actors are playing Tony was helpful; "I wasn't as confused by the changes." The only real problem he had was with the police skit in the Imaginarium: he felt it didn't make sense. All in all, he thought it was good and that he would have to see it again to really analyze it—"so I'll go with you when it comes out." I can't wait to see it again.
The film is a miracle in many ways. Heath Ledger's death didn't bring it to a halt because three distinguished actors who were his close friends stepped in to finish the part of Tony: Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell. Gilliam was able to incorporate them seamlessly into the action and the story stays intact and even benefits from these transformations.
I think it has a straightforward plot, excellent performances and a wonderfully satisfying resolution: the creating of new stories never ends. The images are beautifully created and photographed. Yes, it poses more questions than it answers, there are layers of symbolism and allusion flying by, many of which will take two or three viewings to absorb, and there are some elements that I'd agree don't work very well. But overall I found it beautifully told.
Christopher Plummer plays Dr. Parnassus, an immortal with the power to guide the imaginations of those who enter the Imaginarium, presenting them with choices that reflect problems in their lives. The alternatives are the hard road to virtue or the easy road to hell. The wrong choices lead them into the arms of the Devil, Mr. Nick; the right ones lead to a fulfilling life.
Dr. Parnassus is one part Dr. Faustus, one part Lear and one part Prospero. He has made one too many deals with the Devil: the latest requires him to turn over his first born child, Valentina (played by the beautiful Lily Cole) to Mr. Nick (Tom Waits) when she turns 16, which will occur in just a few days. Parnassus knows no way of saving her and drinks to numb his feelings of guilt and grief. When Mr. Nick shows up early to collect, he offers Parnassus one more deal: the first one to win five souls in the Imaginarium will get Valentina. Valentina, however, has her own destiny in mind.
Plummer is excellent as the drunken mystic, tortured by grief for the loss of his daughter and then spurred by hope of saving her. Percy, his dwarf sidekick (Verne Troyer), is a cynical realist who comments sarcastically on the follies of his friend and other members of the company. Tom Waits is a hail-fellow-well-met sort of Devil, always willing to take a bet but never quite offering the stakes he seems to be; a quintessential con man. Waits' performance is masterful.
Heath Ledger, Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell play a mysterious stranger named Tony Shepard, found hanging beneath a bridge and rescued by Valentina, Percy and Anton (Andrew Garfield) a boy from the streets who has become a sleight of hand expert and barker for Parnassus' traveling show.
Heath Ledger established Tony as charming, seductive and a smooth talker who takes over Anton's role in cajoling customers to step right up and threatens to sweep Valentina, who Anton loves, off her feet with his greater sophistication. Depp, Law and Farrell extend and expand Tony's character as he enters the Imaginarium three separate times. All four performances are very fine; despite his changing face, Tony is believable as the same man. Depp gives a speech which could double as a eulogy for Ledger, Jude Law did a nice job of his encounter with Anton and Colin Farrell was darkly convincing as a man who has lost his moral bearings in his drive for fame and success.
Andrew Garfield is new to me, but I'm very glad to have been introduced. As Anton, the innocent young man with a crush on the boss's daughter who becomes jealous and suspicious of the stranger he rescued, I found him charming and intensely real. The greatest surprise is that Lily Cole is not just a beautiful face; she may be inexperienced, but she did a fine job with her part. And as my husband said, "I could watch her for days."
Because I expected to love the film, I decided my husband's reactions would give some balance to my review. In the past he's found Gilliam's style okay in small doses, but he's no devotee. He knew the back story on the making of the film, but not what the movie was about. He told me that he enjoyed it, "much more than I expected to." Beside Lily Cole's scenic value, he thought the performances were good and the photography was beautiful. He had no trouble at all following the plot. He was a little distracted by wondering "Who's Tony this time?" and thought knowing why four actors are playing Tony was helpful; "I wasn't as confused by the changes." The only real problem he had was with the police skit in the Imaginarium: he felt it didn't make sense. All in all, he thought it was good and that he would have to see it again to really analyze it—"so I'll go with you when it comes out." I can't wait to see it again.
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