The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)

It’s difficult to discuss The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus without mentioning anything about its infamous production. Director Terry Gilliam, not known for his luck with his productions (his troubled attempt to get his Don Quixote movie off the ground is famously chronicled in the 2002 documentary Lost in La Mancha), was faced with the shocking and sad news of Heath Ledger’s death mid-production. However, despite this potential setback, Gilliam and crew managed to complete the film with a rather ingenious concept of using actors Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell to fill in for Ledger’s role during certain sequences of the film. The fact that we are actually watching the film as opposed to becoming an aborted project is an accomplishment within itself, even if the film doesn’t always work despite its ambition and inventiveness.

The film tells the story of Doctor Parnassus and his ragtag crew of misfits as they travel around the streets of London, offering their services to the locals. Their carnivalesque act allows the locals to enter a world of their own imagination controlled by the doctor, where they are given a choice between blissful edification or eternal damnation. Even though the world has gotten tired of the good doctor’s show, the crew find and save a mysterious stranger named Tony from near-death. Tony then helps the doctor modernize his act for an unsuspecting audience just in time to settle a score with Mr. Nick, a devilish character who is always sneaking around in the shadows and waiting to pounce on anyone’s misfortune. Mr. Nick of course relishes the misfortune of Doctor Parnassus the most, since centuries ago the doctor made a deal for eternal life and later for the love of his life in exchange for the devil to collect his daughter upon her sixteenth birthday. As a reult of this wager, Parnassus puts all his faith in Tony, hoping that Tony will be the one able to save both his daughter and himself from the devil’s oily grasp.

If the film’s plot sounds a bit meandering, it’s because it often struggles to find the right tone between the offbeat humor and whimsy contained within the script and gravity of some of the concepts presented. The film touches on the ideas of personal fate vs. free will, good vs. evil, the nature of identity and the consequences of making deals with the devil that you’ve now come to regret. The concept of faith and religion are also obliquely touched upon (there is one particular scene where Doctor Parnassus is required to “collect” twelve disciples). It’s all very interesting stuff, but the film’s plot struggles to keep it all afloat. It’s clear that the project is very personal for the director, and Gilliam’s screenplay (co-written with Charles McKeown, who also was a co-writer on The Adventures of Baron Munchausen) at least tries hard to get all the ideas across in a cohesive way. Also, the last-minute decision to use the three actors to replace Ledger definitely works in favor of some of the film’s setpieces. Every time Ledger’s character enters the imaginarium, his character is replaced with one of the actors. This idea not only plays into the dreamlike state of the imagination world, but it also plays with the nature of identity while in the dream world and the mysterious nature of the character.

Another asset to the film is that the actors, who are often working their hardest not to get lost in the plot. Heath Ledger gives an effective performance as the stranger Tony, playing the character frantically but still with a hint of mischief. Of the three actors that replaced Ledger (Depp, Law, Farrell), Colin Farrell seems to fare the best at capturing the womanizing traits and capitalistic ambition of the character. Tom Waits also gives an always-reliable performance as the mischievous Mr. Nick. The film’s best performance, however, belongs to Christopher Plummer, who plays the aforementioned Doctor Parnassus as a man whose past decisions in life are finally catching up with him in a truly heartbreaking way. His interactions with his daughter show a hint of sadness and regret, and Plummer plays this sense of sadness beautifully. His portrayal provides both the heart and soul to a film that is often in desperate search of one.

While the film’s shifty plot and meandering nature prevent the project from working sucessfully as a whole, the film is bursting with enough imagination, ideas and ambition to make it enjoyable to watch. The film’s visual playfulness also gives the proceedings a kinetic energy that is hard to dislike. The film may not have the scope of Brazil, the cohesiveness of 12 Monkeys, or even the go-for-broke manic experience of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but it has something that the aforementioned films often lack—a heart. Gilliam, much like Parnassus, is trying against all odds to find a connection amongst the crazy fantasies and dreams we all experience, and as long as we go along for the ride, we’ll be treated to something unique and memorable. Sometimes, that’s all that’s necessary.

Rating: 3 ½ stars (out of 5)