FILM REVIEW
8/23/09 (LONDON) Joel Meadows
The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus
Director: Terry Gilliam
Cast: Christopher Plummer, Lily Cole, Tom Waits, Heath Ledger, Jude Law, Colin Farrell and Johnny Depp
A new Gilliam film is always an event. Sadly, The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus was overshadowed by the premature demise of Heath Ledger. Luckily, Gilliam, as one of the most enterprising and imaginative directors still making moving images, managed to finish the film with the absence of one of its major players.
Nearly all of his films have serious flaws: with the exception in my opinion of Brazil, they are filled with visual flourishes and impressive setpieces but never quite manage to gel as a cohesive whole. The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (1988) was slated when it was released because the director went significantly over budget, his first attempt to make The Man Who Killed Don Quixote at the beginning of the Noughties was doomed to fail (although it did make a scintillating documentary, Lost in La Mancha, that came out in 2002) and Gilliam is having another go at putting that on the screen for 2011.
So, considering the fact that Gilliam is not one to let a hindrance get in his way, I have a soft spot for his work. It could be argued that he is one of the last auteurs currently working in his small corner of Hollywood and this is in evidence in The Imaginarium of Dr Parnassus. He has put together a good, if eccentric cast for this endeavour, something that he has always had a real knack for: Christopher Plummer, as the eponymous Dr Parnassus is excellent, Tom Waits acquits himself well as The Devil and even catwalk model Lily Cole shows range as Parnassus’s daughter Valentina. The late Heath Ledger isn’t bad on screen but his role is a little unformed here compared with the rest of the cast.
Parnassus, played by Christopher Plummer, is a carnival turn who travels the world with his old-fashioned act, accompanied by his daughter Cole, plus Verne Troyer (Mini Me from Austin Powers) and Anton, played by Andrew Garfield. They all live in a rundown gypsy caravan-cum-portable-stage but everything seems to change when they rescue Tony (Ledger), hanging off Blackfriars Bridge. To top it all, Mr Nick (Waits) follows them in order to collect on the wager that Parnassus and he made years ago, a bet that Parnassus really doesn’t want to honour.
Gilliam gets around losing Ledger in the second half with some canny cameos from Depp, Farrell and Law but the script is shaky and it doesn’t all hold together. Some of the CGI also looks a bit questionable here. Having said that, there are some very ingenious moments, like the flashback to Parnassus as a monk in an unnamed country centuries ago and Waits is born to play the Devil. So Imaginarium works 70% of the time and while its reach exceeds its grasp, at least Gilliam is attempting something a little bit different. He does have a deft touch for dark fantasy and, if you’re a fan of the director, you should see this film.