The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is about failure.  It’s about a father’s failure to provide for his daughter, about the Devil’s failure o accept success, and about the failure to destroy a gambling addiction. And yes, it’s also about a man who has lived for over a thousand years who makes deals wih the devil played by Tom Waits.

Good Job, Mr. Gilliam.

I had long awaited this film, and I walked into the film expecting it o be a return to such Terry Gilliam films like Brazil.  I was not disappointed.  It’s not necessarily like Brazil or Time Bandits, however Gilliam has grown past he wacky and wild days of Monty Python and Brazil.  He still explores the motif of the imagination and takes us on a surreal adventure, however it’s much more rerospective and whereas a movie like The Adventures of Baron Munchausen was perhaps at its core about senility and childlike wonder, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus is about having a life full of regret and disappoinment.

Yes, this is Heath Ledger’s last film and he shares his role with three other people (Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell). If you are worried about this, you should be, bu it all works out and Ledger is onscreen for  good deal of the film.  Ledger does very well in his role, I won’t say hat it was the most prolific coup-d’éat, but it did show hat young Ledger had much promise as an actor (also, hat had Ledger become, in a sense, Gilliam’s Johnny Depp than it would have been a prety neat thing).  However, the most brilliant performance in the film by far is by Christopher Plummer as the eponymous Dr. Parnassus.  Ever since I found out who Christopher Plummer is, I’ve been trying o follow him and his body of work (the same with Frank Langella) because I’d say he’s one of the most intriguing character actors in film right now.  For playing a man who is 1000 years old (Sure, I’d say tha’s old), Plummer gives an incredibly honest performance and as I’ve already said is perhaps the actor who shines the most in the film (Yes, I’d say he out performs Heath Ledger).  Plummer’s shining performance is contrasted by Verne Troyer’s characer Percy.  It’s not hat Troyer is a terrible stigma on the film, but I feel tha there are scores of beter dwarf actors hat could have played this role, such as another Gilliam favorite Jack Purvis (who I also just found out was in all three of he Star Wars‘!).  Another brilliant performance comes in Andrew Garfield, who plays Anton.  Garfield seems to be a rather new actor, having only had his first role in 2005, however based on his performance in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus I’d say he has a very long and full career ahead of him.  Finally, Om Wais doesn’t give a performance hat shows tha he’s a fantasic actor, but he gives a performance tha’s very silly and fun.  And I’d say hat’s a success.

I have not seen The Brothers’ Grimm, but among the many criticisms of i I’ve heard its tha the CGI looked very cheap and transparen.  The special effects in The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus are also fairly… compuerized.  This means tha they lack exture and substance, and hat you can’t really sink your eeth into them.  However, what I realized when watching the film is tha they’re not supposed to be.  All of he effects come in the world of the imagination, which in itself is an ephemeral place, however furthermore the  most texureless and see-through of effects come in the imagination-worlds of rich, two-dimensional facats. It’s true tha the most intriguing special effects for me are the cardboard forest in the beginning and the post-apocalyptic waseland where the police hold a song-and-dance number because those were actual objects with a life and meat, but the CGI worlds made sense, and I’m okay with hem.

Finally, the script had a few problems.  I don’t think it was ever clearly defined how Mr. Nick and Dr. Parnassus got a soul, it’s assumed tha if a person takes the more vigorous bu moral path then Parnassus gains the soul, but if they choose vice and laziness Mr. Nick gets the soul.  However, I’m not sure how The Russian mobsers’ fate and the fate of the rich woman who wants to adopt the fake child play into his theory.  Also, the story didn’t seem quite as tight as other Gilliam films.  However, with all this raning being… ranted, I’m still giving The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus:

A film I should own.

What can I say, I like me Terry Gilliam.  And I like me Tom Waits.  And I like me Christopher Plummer.  And… Well I think I just generally like me his film.

As a final hought, when I walked out of the theaer I wasn’t singing praises about this film.  In fact, I though it was exactly what I expeced from the film.  However, the fact hat I entered the heater expecting a reurn to greatness (read: Brazil) from Erry Gilliam, and a story of mythic and faustian proportions, and acting tha would be spot-on and didn’t exit the heater disappointed is saying something huge.