The Imaginarium Of Dr. Parnassus

Directed by: Terry Gilliam
Written by: Terry Gilliam/Charles McKeown

A new Terry Gilliam movie is always a reason to celebrate for me, but I’ve been a little bit hesitant after his last couple. Brothers Grimm was fun, but not all that great and the less said about Tideland, the better.

What did I think of his latest opus? Find out after these messages.

RED RIDING–A trilogy of films about a British serial killer and the investigation that played out over a decade? Yes, please! This looks really cool. Each film takes place in a different year with the same characters in different parts of their own investigations of the killings. Each installment has a different director so, hopefully, a different style. If only I had gone to Telluride this year, I would have seen them already.

They’ve already given remake rights to Ridley Scott. One movie. Dumbasses.

That’s the only preview I can remember, so on with the show!

Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer) is in dire straits. He’s immortal and hates it. Not only that, but he promised the Devil (Tom Waits in the role he was born to play) his daughter on her 16th birthday, which is fast approaching.

What’s a 1000 year old man to do?

He and his troupe of out-dated performers have a run-in with a very strange man named Tony (Heath Ledger, among others) who was hanging from a bridge, seemingly dead. Is he a godsend? Or is he something worse?

Parnassus’ daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole, who I can’t wait to see in other movies), is falling for the charms of Tony, but fellow actor Anton (Andrew Garfield, also in Red Riding) is madly in love with her. Will he ever convince her to his clumsy charms are more real than Tony’s suaveness?

Then there’s Percy (Verne Troyer in absolutely his best role), the real brains behind the crew.

This is a Gilliam movie, so there is plenty of magic, darkness and full-on crazy to go around. And the world that Parnassus and his crew live in is pretty amazing. They’re back-dated, it’s true, but who cares? They travel in a gypsy-like carriage pulled by a team of horses. When they pull the stage out, a new world of old magic opens up to a world not willing to watch anymore. Like moviegoers in our own world, the audience in Parnassus’ world aren’t interested in the stories that he was meant to tell. They only want sturm and drang. And that’s too bad, because the old man has some great stories under his belt.

Is this Gilliam’s way of telling audiences that they’re stupid for making the likes of Michael Bay as popular as they are and relegating filmmakers like himself to the discount theatres? Quite possibly. But he doesn’t do it in an insulting way. He suggests that it’s all conditioning. Times change and so do styles. Sure, old storytellers could change with the times, but they have to stay true to themselves or they become hacks. Tools of the Devil.

I loved this movie. It took a while to figure out exactly what was going on, but that’s true of just about every Gilliam film. Give it the time and energy that it deserves and you’ll be rewarded.

Be warned that the special effects are, in a way, sub-par. But that really doesn’t matter. The CGI is only used in the fantasy world behind the mirror. (No, I didn’t explain that. Find out for yourself.) That’s why the cheap effects work so well. Sure, the giant cobra looks cartoony and silly, but it’s supposed to look cartoony and silly. Just go with it.

Now for what we’re all waiting for: how was Heath in his last role? Actually, he was pretty amazing. Yeah, it hurts that he didn’t get to finish the film, but the way they get past that is pretty ingenious and it works perfectly. (Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell do great Heath impressions.) In fact, it’s almost hard to imagine the film being made any other way.

I’m a little upset that it took me so long to see this film, but I did finally get to see it. Do yourself a favor and go see it now. It’s one of Gilliam’s best films.