Susan Granger’s review of “The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus” (Sony Classics)
Idiosyncratic filmmaker Terry Gilliam dazzles with this fantastical morality tale, set in contemporary London, revolving around a horse-drawn carnival sideshow run by enigmatic, often inebriated Dr. Parnassus (Christopher Plummer), a former monk who is thousands of years old. By stepping into Dr. Parnassus’s makeshift ‘magical mirror,’ patrons enter their own phantasmagorical, imaginary world, a realm dictated by a series of choices.
But Dr. Parnassus is facing a dilemma. To achieve immortality, years ago, he made a bizarre deal with the Devil, personified by Mr. Nick (Tom Waits), to hand over the soul of his beloved daughter, Valentina (Lily Cole), on her 16th birthday. And that’s in three days. Now there’s another wager going on, since Parnassus’ ragtag crew – Percy (Vern Troyer) and Anton (Andrew Garfield) – saved the life of Tony (Heath Ledger), a suave amnesiac whom they discovered hanging by his neck under a bridge. It seems sly, silver-tongued Tony has a secret past and, in revealing the various sides of his nature, his colorful ‘persona’ changes in the imaginary ‘looking-glass’ world.
Utilizing that ingenious gimmick is how Gilliam was able to integrate performances by Johnny Depp, Jude Law and Colin Farrell as various alter-egos of charming ‘Tony’ after the untimely, mid-production death of Heath Ledger in January, 2008. The chameleonesque transformations of Tony are spectacular, both thematically and visually.
Fans of “Brazil,” “The Fisher King,” “Time Bandits,” “Twelve Monkeys,” “The Adventures of Baron Munchausen” and “The Brothers Grimm” know that Terry Gilliam’s distinctive ‘auteur’ style involves whimsical utilization of various cinematic devices, including CGI, to explore universal themes of good and evil. In this complex endeavor, he’s aided immeasurably by cinematographer Nicola Pecorini, the visual inventions of London’s Peerless Camera Company, and a dominating performance by Christopher Plummer. To its detriment, reality and fantasy often collide, rendering the other actors into caricatures, particularly the love triangle involving Valentina, Andrew and Tony. On the Granger Movie Gauge of 1 to 10, “The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus” is a dazzling, sumptuous 7, chronicling a haunting race to redemption.
