THE IMAGINARIUM OF DOCTOR PARNASSUS

Even shots of beauty have a tinge of off-putting perversity in Terry Gilliam’s world. Gilliam wants to crush and decimate the idea of a fairy tale with his latest The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The film will more likely be remembered as Heath Ledger’s final film. Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell stepped in as substitute for Ledger’s non-completed scenes which are mostly the fantasy ones, sometimes masquerading in disguise or aided by CGI to fill in for Ledger’s character.

“Parnassus” is an original idea by Gilliam and co-writer Charles McKeown that revolves around a travelling stage show. Once you go backstage, you fall into a magical alternate world that’s like an id extension of the Candyland game. It’s a place where Gilliam, like he did in “Brazil” and “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen,” unleashes his whacked surrealist imagination.

Yet Gilliam finds it necessary to open the movie with a demonstration of cruel and mean behavior as a couple of drunks attempt to trash the stage of Parnassus’ (Christopher Plummer, in white goatee). Other travelling players include Percy (Vern Troyer) as the midget who deploys wisecracks. Anton (Andrew Garfield) and Valentina (Lily Cole) are the hormonal teenagers. New to the pack, Tony (Ledger) is an amnesiac who joins the gang until he can figure out where he can from and why he stumbled.

What can be said when Ledger has more charisma than anybody in the troupe, even Parnassus himself, who is the dullest of dullest of eponymous characters? This is in no way a demonstration of Ledger’s greatest acting (“Brokeback Mountain” and “The Dark Knight” are proof of his endurance), but in a movie replete with magic tricks, Ledger’s star burns brightest.

You never want to be a part of the ordinary scenes as these guys travel through London. The dialogue is garble, often nonsensical or grandiose. “He doesn’t want to rule the world. He wants the world to rule itself.” Gilliam’s visual sense is more cluttered than ever – it’s oppressive, assaultive. If “Parnassus” is worth bothering to look at it is for some of its technical work (in the fantasy sequences only), not story. In brief, it is a shiftless story about making improvements to the road show, figuring out the meaning of self-identity and escaping from Tom Waits (He plays the Devil).

In regards to technical work, what you will get in the fantasy sequences are such things as mammoth staircases, funny-acting mirrors and men on elongated stilts. His neatest trick, with Depp in foreground, is an oily onyx river that morphs into a snake’s head. What poisons the film ultimately however is Gilliam’s unceasing misanthropy. This is his third bad movie in a row.

Click here to go to Doctor Parnassus official site

Grade: C-