Review

Review Date: 10-January-10
Spoiler Rating: Low
Juju Judgment: Junk

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

Oh, Heath Ledger, you break my heart. I never met you and never would have, but your death still grieves me as having deprived me of something special. And now nobody can review your final picture without dwelling on your loss as I must do. Too bad you did not get a better swan song than this.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is not likely to inspire love in the theater; it is more apt to cast a minor spell on someone who finds it on television during a bout of insomnia when it might seem like an amusing curiosity. A couple months ago I called the circus surreality motif the cinematic equivalent of painting on velvet, and trippy filmmaker Terry Gilliam takes this cornball fancy to the extreme. Behold a horse-drawn sideshow in modern London with Victorian decor by way of Dr. Seuss, topped off by the inevitable dwarf (Verne Troyer). See people who venture behind its mirror being transported to a world of imagination where anything is possible and Satan (Tom Waits) lurks to lure them from joy. Discover how the show's beautiful fairy (Lily Cole) perches on the edge of disaster, torn between a youth who loves her (Andrew Garfield) and dangers beyond her understanding.

The magic that fuels the imaginarium comes from Doctor Parnassus, an immortal human and erstwhile lama with a bad habit of gambling with the Devil. In this role Christopher Plummer lightens the gloom that hangs over the casting: he is the best part of the movie and is enjoying a lengthy career unlike his tragic co-star. Ledger enters as a huckster whose meeting with the troupe helps him escape a seedy past. Part catalyst, part threat, part deus ex machina, his is the weakest character, which partly explains how seamlessly Gilliam was able to substitute Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell in certain fantasy scenes after Ledger died. As for the fantasy, some of the visual effects aren't bad although they smack of cliché and pop psychology. For example, the kid who ventures behind the mirror sees a candyland, the rich matron sees shoe heaven, and the Ledger/Depp/Law/Farrell character, always on the make, sees ladders that promise new heights.

One kernel of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus has weight: the belief espoused by the doctor that keeping stories alive preserves the world from oblivion. Someone like Guillermo del Toro might create a work of art from this notion, but Gilliam's too-broad strokes produce a piece akin to Elvis having a cup of Joe with Marilyn Monroe and James Dean, or a roomful of poker-playing dogs.

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