Review of The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009) by Robert T — 11 Apr 2011

When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I was intrigued. I was intrigued by the sheer strange pythonesque quality about the whole concept, the sheer imagination of all of it. Unfortunately, a trailer only has to be fractured images without a plot, and let me begin by saying this film works best as a trailer. I admire Terry Gilliam for his great looking images and work with Monty Python. That he needs to hire better writers is hardly completely his fault.

The first problem with this film is in it's plot. It establishes an intriguing, if not too original, premise, where a Doctor and his family run a small traveling circus, and are financed by the Devil, who manages to capitalize on Parnassus' gambling addiction. Like Black Swan, as the plot moves along, the less it seems to matter. However, unlike Black Swan, this film finds no freedom in insanity, no accomplishment, and seems to just loose its marbles cinematically and mentally. One of the interesting things I noticed about it was its complete lack of trust in its own world. Most of the most amazing sequences of beautiful production design are in flashbacks, and the present world, other than the imaginarium, looks rather drab and dull in comparison. It was as if part of the film wanted to be free, but it was tied down by it's need to have a mundane plot.

A stage director who is a friend of mine has a theory that can apply to all theatrical productions. It is called: The down ending. When an actor ends his or her line with their energy dropping, he knows that they either don't know what they're saying, or they don't have enough energy to convey what they are saying correctly. When a stage production has a lot of down endings, there is a very severe problem with their director. To say that this film ends on a down ending would be an understatement. The ending of this film is the most appalling drop in energy and understandability that I left the film feeling empty and disappointed.

But for all the dissapointments and the rather flat plot,this film does has its high points. The performances of Christopher Plummer as Doctor Parnassus and the actor who Plays the Devil (I cannot remember his name right now) steal the show for the most part. And yes, this has the title of being Heath Ledger's last film. Heath Ledger is an incredibly talented actor, but the character that Terry Gilliam gave him here is horrendously vague, and the plot-line of the character keeps reminding us in a macabre way, of Heath Ledger's death. Sure, Terry Gilliam didn't know he was going to die, but couldn't he have at least wrote a stronger character for Ledger's talent? I prefer to think of The Dark Knight as Ledger's last film, for his most inspired performance. This film bookends his legacy as a half-completed fantasy of incomplete imagination. The other actors in the film really aren't noticeable in comparison, and the film promptly forgets them.

All that said, the film does look beautiful when it does manage to free itself from the confines of its narrative. That is often the common thread between Gilliam's films. They all have a surreal, otherworldly feel throughout them. Terry Gilliam, however, would benefit from an understanding of what will confuse audience and what won't. That could be a compliment, in that, like Kubrick, he does not want to pander to any audience expectations, but when Kubrick wanted a film understandable, it was understandable. When Terry Gilliam wants a film understandable, meh.

Overall, a great looking film with imagination that isn't allowed to be as free as it could be. One thumb down.