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The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus
Terry Gilliam 2009
I have to begin by telling you that I am disappointed. I was all over early reviews even though I knew I wouldn't pay much attention to them since I am such a fan of Gilliam and the majority of actors involved. The reviews I read described it as messy and lacking direction but extremely creative and colorful. I presumed since most of Gilliam's work is messy to some extent and always colorful that these reviews were just unfamiliar with his style. Sadly I was wrong, The Imaginarium of of Doctor Parnassus is a real mess.
Lets start with Heath Ledger since he ll be a focal point for most people going to see this. Even though I always enjoy Ledgers performances this is far from his best work, he obviously had other things on his mind and it shows. His character is flat, uninspired and hard to like for the most part. Its hard for me to say it because I am such a big fan of his (these days who isn't) and there was so much potential there. There are moments when this changed and I saw something more but they were all too fleeting.
And now on to the film itself. A mess. A huge mess. Right from the start I felt like this film wasn't finished. As it went on my opinion jumped between unfinished and rebuilt. Was this film just incomplete or was it just edited so heavily after Ledgers passing that it deviated too far from its original intentions. Possibly and probably both. Very unfortunate because there is so much potential all round but when its all said and done it just doesn't deliver.
In my opinion Andrew Garfield gave the best performance or at least was entertaining. The rest of the cast weren't bad but weren't particularly memorable either. Lilly Cole is the token attractive girl, there isn't much more to her role then her unique doll-like beauty. Christopher Plummer looks good as an aged wizard/mystic but other then that there isn't much to mention. I was disappointed by Tom Waits, the role suited him so much but when he spoke he just wasn't convincing. On to Depp, Law and Farrell. The movie was obviously altered to include "transformations" which weakened it severely. At first, when Depp appears its acceptable and is interesting. But by the time Farrell wraps it up I'd lost touch with the character. A great idea in theory, replacing Ledger with other high caliber actors in honor of him but in reality its simply confusing.
By far my favorite aspect of this film is Gilliam's artistic vision. The concepts, sets and costumes are magnificent. He is on another level. There are few human beings who can challenge Gilliam on this front. The CGI doesn't blend with gritty real life costumes at points but apart from that, no complaints. I'd love to get my hands on some of that art work.
This movie is Heath Ledgers last film but I think people will always remember The Joker as his last role. Its hard to judge a film that had to deal with such a tragedy and it doesn't feel right to rate as I would any other film because this isn't the film it could have been.
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