Oh god, how long have I been waiting to see this movie? ("Too fucking long", that is the answer.) Terry Gilliam once again takes his audience into a whimsical and dark fantasy world populated with black humor and fascinating visuals in The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus. The title character (Christopher Plummer), the keeper of a wondrous device that can take a person into his or her own imagination, has been made immortal after a deal with the devil (Tom Waits) centuries ago. He travels around England in a horse-drawn portable stage unsuccessfully showing off his imaginarium, along with his daughter Valentina (Lily Cole), blunt but loyal friend Percy (Verne Troyer), and Anton (Andrew Garfield), a young man they took in off the streets as a child.
They find Tony (Heath Ledger) half-dead, hanging under a bridge from a noose. When he comes to he has no memory of who he is or how he got there. Parnassus believes he's been sent as a messenger from the devil, who's been hanging around ready to claim his daughter as part of one of their deals. Tony helps the small troupe gain a larger audience, but Anton believes he has some sort of underhanded motive behind his actions, and of course a love triangle develops between the two of them and Valentina. Meanwhile the devil draws ever nearer, and Parnassus needs to find a way to save his daughter from the fate he made for her.
There's a lot going on in this movie, and a lot of things are purposefully ambiguous, but Gilliam and co-writer Charles McKeown bring it all together masterfully for an idiosyncratic and engaging story, full of memorable and complex characters. The visuals, while not necessarily at the height of new technology, are striking in their inventiveness and boldness, offering multiple worlds I'd love to visit. I'm a sucker for the anachronistic costumes and gadgets- the whole movie felt like a combination of multiple eras, in the vein of Dark City but more sunny. Even when the theater troupe was operating outside the imaginarium, it felt like they were in a special world of their own.
The cast is excellent, and I especially enjoyed newcomer Lily Cole, who holds her own against her predominantly male and more experienced counterparts. She's energetic and likable, infusing Valentina with the many emotional variables of a frustrated 16-year-old girl. Plus Tom Waits is there as the raspy chain-smoker devil. Tom Waits! Of course the main acting news about this movie is Heath Ledger, who is great as the mysterious and changeable Tony. The concept of his transformations each time he enters the imaginarium is handled well, and doesn't seem like the afterthought/re-write it actually was. I liked the contributions from Johnny Depp, Jude Law, and Colin Farrell a lot (though Depp's was far too short), and I'm really glad Ledger's last film was able to be completed with his role intact. I know The Dark Knight will be remembered by most as his final performance, but I think Parnassus is a fitting end as well.
Laced with Gilliam's signature creative and ambiguous mode of visual storytelling, as well as several admirable performances, The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus is a truly enjoyable, entertaining, and beautiful film. I'd say regarded among his other works, it's closest to The Adventures of Baron Munchausen in its themes and atmosphere. It hasn't supplanted Brazil as my favorite Gilliam movie (I doubt anything ever would), but is still a smart and exciting entry into the oeuvre of a director who's never let me down so far, and I can't wait to watch it again.
4.5/5
Friday, January 1, 2010
The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus (2009)
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I actually enjoyed the performance from the cast in general. However, while some said that the storytelling is ambiguous, I found the story a little bit thin. In fact, we don't really get to know how Dr. Parnassus intended to enjoy immortality (and why he wanted it in the first place). Secondly, while we see that Christopher Plummer's character has regrets for promising his daughter to the Devil, we just don't know what motivated him to do that.
ReplyDeleteAll in all, I was entertained by the film.
I assume he wanted immortality because that's a thing a lot of people want, but I agree, we really didn't see why it was so important to him. But I think the thing about his daughter was explained- Parnassus never planned to have any children, so he didn't think it was a big deal signing away a person who would never exist. But his wife got pregnant when she was elderly, presumably as part of the devil's plan. Something similar happened in the tv show Reaper, incidentally.
ReplyDeleteSaw this last night and am close to saying that I loved it, which thrills me because I wasn't expecting all that much from it (though, admittedly, I knew little about it aside from the Ledger news, obviously). I knew it had opened Cannes, but I hadn't heard much about it either way, though I got the vibe that it was generally well-liked but not great. Perhaps the further we get from Ledger's death, the less poignant it will be, but I doubt it. All of the cast was enchanting: it's amazing to think that Plummer is nearly (if not) 80, Cole and Garfield were revelations, Ledger and the trio were just the right amount of dangerous and sexy, and even Verne Troyer was hilarious without feeling like stunt-casting. But Tom Waits made the move for me - he's my favorite Devil of them all.
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to Gilliam's latest - he always produces interesting films, and your review seals the deal.
ReplyDeleteAnd Tom Waits as the devil - awesome!